


Mental Lovers

by LunaTheAwesomeJordan



Category: Until Dawn (Video Game)
Genre: Author Leaves Notes Within Chapters Occasionally, Author References Supernatural Too Many Times Starting After A Couple Chapters, F/M, Horror, Original Fanfic Can Be Found Elsewhere, Other, POV Third Person, Pranks, Romance, Slow To Update, The Author Regrets Nothing, Tragedy, revamped
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-11
Updated: 2019-01-19
Packaged: 2019-03-02 19:35:24
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 8
Words: 53,061
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13325028
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LunaTheAwesomeJordan/pseuds/LunaTheAwesomeJordan
Summary: Tragedy strikes when Beth and Hannah Washington go missing during an annual winter getaway. Exactly one year later, everyone has returned to the lodge but no one was aware of the true danger that awaited them all...





	1. The Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Originally, this was created on Quotev and Fanfiction.net in Late Nov of 2015. Only last year did I start remaking this on Fanfiction.net only. Now, in 2018, I've decided to not only revamp it on fanfic.net AND Quotev, but I've decided to post the revamped version on here. Updates will be slow because of my actual ongoing fanfictions that I've got right now but you can find the cringy original on Wattpad (August 27th: the original will now eventually cease to exist because I'm revamping it on there, too). This fanfic is named the same on everything and I'm called Luca and Luna J on all of those sites.
> 
> I certainly hope you enjoy the ride.
> 
> (Aug 2018 Added Note) I apologize if my writing annoys you. I am better at describing things from television shows like Supernatural or The Vampire Diaries. I'll admit, however, that with those, I get past and present tense all mixed up there like I do here. No one's perfect, though, so don't let it ruin the story for you.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The beginning of everything dealing with this fanfiction.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Credits: The creators of the game own basically everything else and the Until Dawn wikia that I got the character details from owns exactly what I just stated seconds ago. I own Hazel and all original conversations that are in this story.
> 
> Date Revamped: January 9th-11th, 2018
> 
> Additions To This Version: Added Original Dialogue, Added Descriptions, Errors Fixed (Some May Had Been Missed), Possibility of Incorrect Information
> 
> Warnings: Cursing, Original Dialogue, Unoriginal Dialogue, Possibility of Out-of-Character Moments, Third Person (Might Go Back and Forth Between Past and Present Tense), Some Paragraphs May Still Be Effy (Or The Same As It Was Originally)

        Eleven friends were at the Washington Lodge on Blackwood Mountain. They were gathered there for their annual winter getaway. Beth and Hannah Washington, eighteen-year-old twin sisters and younger siblings of nineteen-year-old Josh Washington, were standing in the main room with their mutual best friend, sixteen-year-old Hazel Brown, who happened to be the girlfriend of their older brother and the sister of their mutual friend, seventeen-year old Ashley Brown. The three of them were standing near the staircase, making conversation with one another, something they always did whenever the three of them were put together in any sort of scenario.

        "I'm so glad you came, Hazel," Beth told her, smiling brightly. She wore a white beanie atop her short, dark-chocolate brown hair that went below her chin and her bangs covered her entire forehead. She had a light caramel complexion and her eyes were a beautiful dark chocolate brown. Additionally, she wore a half-sleeved gray sweater, a darker gray pair of yoga pants, and cream colored boots. For accessories, she wore a bracelet, a ring, and a small brown watch, the watch having her initials on its backside.

        Hazel smiled back at Beth in response. She was wearing a black knitted sweater, a pair of black jeans, and some dark-brown colored boots. Her complexion was very pale in tone and her hair was strawberry-blonde, it going slightly past her shoulders. Her eyes were a lovely shade of light-hazel, hence why her name was what it was. "Why the hell wouldn't I? My best friends, my somewhat friends, my older sister, and my boyfriend were planning to go on a little trip and I was undoubtedly invited. Yeah, I was totally just gonna stay home and watch some television," she replied, adding some sarcasm at the end. "Because staying at home and watching  _Supernatural_ reruns is far more entertaining than hanging out with fellow human beings."

        "I think I'm starting to see why our brother fell for you three years ago," Hannah stated, smiling a little bit at Hazel. She had medium-shoulder length chocolate-brown hair, lovely chocolate-brown eyes, and her complexion was a darker caramel than that of her younger twin sister. She was wearing a black buttoned blouse, some dark blue jeans, and some leather boots. As accessories, she wore onyx-black rectangular glasses and around her neck, she wore a heart-shaped locket that held a picture of herself and Beth. Very visible on her upper right arm was a tattoo of a black butterfly. "So sarcastic."

        "And beautiful," Beth added, giving their younger best friend a compliment.

        Hazel laughed tenderheartedly. "Thank you, but I hear that compliment quite a lot." And there was a certain someone who often happened to give her that compliment and that someone was her boyfriend, their brother. However, she never got tired of hearing it because it always made her feel good about herself. Plus, she simply enjoyed hearing her boyfriend say sweet things to her.

        "From Josh, no doubt. When he is with you, he almost becomes a whole different person. Almost." Beth crossed her arms and continued to smile. "It's a great thing, though. You're a good influence on him. You know, he worries about you as much as he worries about us. Maybe even more." She wasn't oblivious to the emotions that her older male sibling would release.

        "Yeah, I know. It's kind of cute, in a sense," Hazel replied. "But it can be a tad annoying sometimes." Josh often worried about her when he didn't need to. Anyone would grow annoyed by that really quickly. She still loved him regardless and she definitely loved that he cared for her so much, just as she cared very much for him and his sisters.

        "I completely agree with you on that," Beth told her. After all, Josh did tend to act overprotective towards Hannah and herself, just like he tended to do such with Hazel. Beth loved and hated it, just like any younger, or older, sibling would. Seconds later, Beth and Hazel quickly noticed that Hannah had gotten quiet, very quiet. The two of them both looked towards her, only to find that she was staring at something across the room. However, it wasn't just something that Hannah was staring at but it was  _someone_. Across the room from where the three of them stood, their seven friends were talking to one another, socializing like any normal person or group of people would do.

        Eighteen-year-old Samantha Giddings, known to all of her friends as Sam, stood wearing a red and white patterned wool sweater with dark blue jeans and dark leather boots. She had sandy-blonde hair, it being tied up in a classic bun-like hairstyle at the back of her head with a few locks framing her lovely face. Her skin had a bisque tone to it, her eyes were a grass-green color, and her lips were a dark-shaded color, thanks to lipstick. As an accessory, she wore a nice little bracelet on her right wrist. She had a large smile on her face as she spoke with eighteen-year-old Christopher Hartley, known as Chris by his friends. He was attired in a red-patterned designed plaid shirt, a pair of jeans, and some dark-brown colored shoes. As accessories, he wore a black watch and some dark-gray rectangular glasses. Fair skinned, his dirty-blonde hair was styled in a faux-hawk hairdo and his eyes were a light-blue.

        Standing across from Chris and Sam was seventeen-year-old Jessica Riley. She was known by everyone as Jess and she was the best friend of Emily Davis. Her eyes were a gentle shade of green, her beige-blonde hair was styled in pigtails, and she had a medium bisque complexion. She wore an olive green top, a dark green skirt with black leggings, and black fluffy boots. Additionally, she wore a necklace as an accessory. Standing to her right was seventeen-year-old, multi-ethnic African-American Matthew Taylor, better known as Matt. He had short coal-black hair and chocolate-brown eyes. He was styled in a gray t-shirt, a gray hoodie, a dark pair of jeans, and dark colored boots.

        Sitting on the long couch near where Chris, Jess, Matt, and Sam stood was eighteen-year-old Asian-American Emily and she was flirting with her boyfriend, Michael Monroe. She had an olive complexion, a small birthmark above her right eyebrow, her coal-black hair was above shoulder-length, and her eyes were a light amber-brown. She was wearing a low collar dark cerulean-blue racer-style jacket, it covering a plain white t-shirt in addition to her silver necklace accessory and she additionally was wearing some dark yoga pants with furred white boots. On the other hand, Michael (or Mike for short) had short dark brown hair, chestnut-brown colored eyes, a fair complexion, and a five o'clock shadow. Additionally, Mike was wearing a brown plaid shirt over a blue shirt, a pair of jeans, and some dark-colored shoes.

        Sitting far down the couch was Hazel's older sister by a year, Ashley. Her complexion was fair, her hair was at medium-length and it was a soft ginger-red color, her eyes were a forest-green color, she was wearing natural glossy lip-color, and she was wearing a very gentle touch of smokey eye-shadow. Her attire consisted of a dark green and white striped beanie, a dark red puffer jacket, a green long sleeved shirt, black lace-up boots, and a pair of charcoal yoga pants. She stared at Chris as he talked with Sam and she smiled to herself while she continued watching him. She had a large crush on him but she wasn't willing enough, or brave enough, to admit it, out loud, to anyone, even though most of her friends, and even her sister, were well aware of this fact already.

        The culprit of Hannah's constant staring and goo-goo eyes was Mike. Beth and Hazel both sighed, Hazel shaking her head additionally. Hannah had quite a crush on him, which wasn't a good thing considering that Mike was dating Emily. "Okay then," Hazel commented. She looked over at Hannah. "Hannah, honey, you seriously need to find yourself a new crush and a  _better_  one at that. And quickly, too, to avoid conflict that'll ensue in the future."

        Hazel's remark caused Hannah to look away from Mike, her attention on Hazel instead. "No, I don't. You'll see. By the end of this weekend, I'll be in Mike's arms instead of Emily," she told her, sighing happily afterwards. "And I don't care about conflict. It's bound to happen anyways, those two breaking up. They aren't meant to be together." She was too blind to see the truth; Mike was never going to notice her, in the correct way. If he did ever notice her, he wouldn't just suddenly end up with her and he most definitely wouldn't just drop Emily in mere seconds. Additionally, the conflict would most definitely be terrible, considering that Emily could be a straight-up bitch when she needed or wanted to be.

        "Really, Hannah?" Beth questioned as she stared at her twin. "Do you honestly believe that'll happen?" Was Hannah really that obsessed with getting Mike to be hers? Was she really that delusional that she honestly thought she could end up with him in the end? And did she really think that conflict with Emily was something to not care about? Emily was bright and all, but she'd spread a rumor in a heartbeat about anyone if that person got on her bad side.

        "Definitely," Hannah replied as she looked at Beth. She wanted Mike to be hers and hers alone. She knew that she could make that happen. Somehow. She had her good looks, her lovely personality. She never really liked Emily anyways and if she had, she probably would've given up by now on trying to pursuit Mike. In her mind, Emily didn't deserve to have Mike as her boyfriend.

        "Yeah, that will definitely happen, alright. In your dreams and in our nightmares," Hazel remarked. She placed her right hand atop of Hannah's head and she messed with her hair a little bit while Beth laughed at what she had said seconds beforehand. "Find another fella, alright? One without a girlfriend and with a more than decent personality. I honestly don't think Mike is all that handsome, anyways, and he can be kind of a dick sometimes, if you haven't noticed. You're better off without him."

        "Are you blind? He's so dreamy and his personality is perfect." Hannah bit her lip as she looked back towards where Mike was sitting. She frowned a little when she saw that he was semi-cuddling with Emily. However, her frown faded as she began daydreaming, thinking about and imagining what it would be like if she were Mike's girlfriend instead of Emily. She completely zoned out, the presence of her sister, best friend, and other friends ignored. All she had on her mind now was Mike and only Mike. Luckily for her, only Beth and Hazel knew that she was staring at Mike or there would've been hell to pay.

        "Aren't you forgetting something, Han? Haze only has her eyes set on Josh." Beth waited for Hannah to respond but she got nothing. She spoke once more. "Hannah?" she questioned. Hannah replied with a happy sigh, her eyes locked on Mike as she daydreamed further. "And we lost her to dreamland." Beth shook her head and she looked towards Hazel. She smiled a little bit. "So, when are you and Josh getting married?" she teased. "I want you to be my sister-in-law already."

        Hazel blushed deeply, stuttering as she replied. "I-I'm only sixteen. I'm f-far too young to get m-married." She had been dating Josh for three years, her having been thirteen and him having been sixteen when they first began to. They had met when Chris invited Ashley to a party that Josh was throwing and Ashley had brought her along for the ride. It was basically love at first sight the moment she and Josh had locked eyes with each other.

        "Pffft." Beth waved her right hand around. "Like that'll stop Josh from asking for your hand in marriage one day." She smiled as Hazel blushed more. Josh wouldn't ever shut up about his dreams of getting married to Hazel, whenever she wasn't around to hear it. Beth always enjoyed hearing those rants of his when they happened. The rants were just too adorable and too cute to ever find them annoying. She'd even join in on the rant sometimes, talking about the types of wedding dresses Hazel could wear.

        "Well, maybe one day but not any day soon. It'll probably be when I'm eighteen. Or older." Hazel headed over to the staircase that was nearby. She wanted to see where the hell Josh was and what was taking him so long to join the mostly boring little party they were having. Additionally, she really just wanted to be near him; she was getting boyfriend withdrawals.

        "Where are you going?" Beth asked her, her eyes following Hazel.

        "To look for Josh," Hazel answered as she stopped at the foot of the stairs. She looked back towards Beth. "He's the only one who is missing out on the obvious fun we're totally having right now," she remarked sarcastically.

        Beth shook her head but she continued to smile. "Good luck. Check his bedroom first." He usually spent time in his bedroom whenever they were there. He wasn't always in there but he often went in there as much as he went into every other room in the building. He sure loved to wander around and keep himself busy with something.

        "Yep." Hazel looked away from Beth and she proceeded to walk up the stairs. Soon enough, she stood still at the top momentarily before she started to walk around, trying to recall which room belonged to her boyfriend. Luck was on her side as she happened to open the door to Josh's room first. "I'm a motherfucking genius," she quietly cheered to herself. She walked right into the room, leaving the door open behind her for some reason.

        She strode around the room and she looked at a few objects that were lying about. The first object that she picked up was a portrait of herself, Beth, Hannah, and Josh that was sitting on the dresser. She smiled to herself as she recalled the day the picture was taken; it happened a few weeks after she met Josh and his sisters. She was hanging out with them and Chris had been around as well, all of them just relaxing and such. Chris had noticed them all grouped up on the couch and he made a comment that the position they were in would make a great photo opportunity. Hannah had squealed and she had gotten up, rushing to get a camera and when she returned with one, she tossed it to Chris and she got back in her spot. And when Chris was about to take the photo, the four of them instantly made a silly face at the same exact time, almost like they had been thinking the same thing. That day would always remain as one of Hazel's fondest memories.

        She placed the portrait back down and she picked up an orange bottle of pills. Her smile became a frown as she stared at the medication. The medication was for depression, something she wouldn't have ever thought Josh would need to take if he hadn't told her about it. She suddenly recalled the day that he had informed her of the fact that he was diagnosed with a mental illness, Major Depressive Disorder. He seemed so nervous about telling her the information, like he was afraid she'd react negatively to it, but she hadn't and instead, she revealed that she herself had a mental illness, Generalized Anxiety Disorder. Because of having this in common, the fact that they both had a mental illness of some kind, the bond between them had immediately grown stronger. However, Hazel couldn't help but believe that maybe Josh was being treated for the wrong mental illness because more often than not, Josh would complain to her about how the meds weren't helping much, even though she could tell that he was not depressed. She had mentioned her thoughts about it one day, about a year before, to Josh but he dismissed it, believing that he just was getting too use to the meds. Hazel never mentioned it again after that, believing that perhaps she was wrong to assume such things.

        Hazel let out a low sigh and she placed the medication bottle back onto the dresser. Arms suddenly slipped around her waist, the person's hands resting on her abdomen. A smile spread across Hazel's face again since she knew exactly whom the person was. "Hello, beautiful," Josh spoke, his voice sounding raspy. "May I ask why you're snooping through my belongings?"

        "I was looking for you and I got distracted." Hazel turned her head towards the left so that she could see her boyfriend's face. His arms remained secured around her waist. From the corner of her eye, she could see that he had closed the door behind him on his way in. "So, where were you? You were missing out on… Absolutely nothing was missed out on, actually." She let out a light giggle after finishing her sentence.

        Josh smiled. He was wearing a gray sweater with a big white stripe on it, some dark shoes, and a pair of black jeans. His complexion was of a caramel color, his hair was short and dark chocolate-brown, and his eyes were a somewhat dark shade of green. "You were looking for me so I could make things more interesting," he stated, quickly figuring out her reason for looking for him.

        "Pretty much. That and I just wanted to have you by my side." Hazel smiled more at him. If anyone could make her happy for no damn reason, it was Josh. "You didn't answer my question," she pointed out.

        "I was in the bathroom, Miss Nosy. Sheesh." Josh's smile didn't falter. "You're just as bad as my sisters."

        Hazel laughed and she turned her entire body in Josh's direction, Josh's arms remaining locked around her. "Hey, I was simply being curious. Not nosy." She stood up on her tip toes and she laid a kiss upon Josh's nose; she was a little shorter than him, by a couple of inches or so.

        "You missed." Josh leaned towards her immediately after she moved her lips from his nose, placing his lips against hers. Hazel didn't hesitate to kiss him back, wrapping her arms around his neck as she did so. Their kiss lasted about a minute before they both pulled away. Josh's happy smile quickly transformed into a perverted one, something sexual evidently on his mind suddenly. He began speaking once more. "I've been thinking that maybe we should bump up our relationship status a bit. You know, take it to the next level."

        Hazel blushed a little at the suggestion, knowing exactly what he meant. "I'd love to do that, believe me, but I'm pretty sure either your sisters will interrupt us or one of our wonderful friends will." Sex was just completely out of question because of them not being entirely alone. Getting caught in the middle of the act would be embarrassing, for probably just her.

        "No one will interrupt us," Josh said. He was failing very hard at trying to convince her that they could have sex without anyone bothering them. That just couldn't happen. No way.

        Hazel gave him a look as she moved her arms from his neck and she placed her hands on his chest. "Yeah, our good friends and your awesome sisters will definitely not wonder where we are and they definitely won't come looking for us. Then, they totally won't find us fucking on your bed for the first time."

        "Well, when you put it in that sarcastic way, I kind of see your point and I would hate for anyone to see you naked when your nudity is only meant for me to lay my eyes upon." Josh winked at her, resulting in Hazel blushing more and Hazel began giggling. "But we could try later, yeah? When everyone is sleeping?" He was really trying hard to get into her pants. Horny man.

        Hazel grinned a little. "Maybe." She poked him in the chest. "If you're a good boy for the rest of the night.  _And_  if you promise that we'll keep it quiet when we do it. I don't want to wake anyone up and be walked in on."

        Josh smiled widely. "Oh, I'll be more than just 'a good boy'." He leaned down and he captured her lips again with his own. Hazel responded by kissing back, placing her arms around his neck again as she began to lose her train of thought. As minutes went by, the two continued to kiss one another and things began to get heated as they both started getting heavily into the kiss, forgetting all about their friends downstairs. Josh moved backwards, towards his bed as he kissed Hazel more fiercely. He turned so that when they both fell onto the bed, Hazel was underneath him. Josh began to lift up Hazel's sweater as they continued to kiss each other feverishly when-

        "JOSH! HAZEL! ARE YOU TWO UP THERE?!" Sam shouted from downstairs. She had noticed that the two of them were missing amongst the group and she had decided to shout for them, not wanting to walk in on anything.

        Josh groaned as he pulled out of the hot kiss. Hazel pushed Josh away from her gently, making him sit up, and she sat up as well. "Told you that we'd get interrupted," she whispered to him, smirking a little as she panted slightly. She loved being correct about things. She was, however, a little disappointed that their fun had to end so soon.

        "Yeah," Josh replied lowly. He, then, shouted back to Sam after moving away from Hazel a tad, trying not to cause harm to her ears. "YEAH! WE'RE IN MY ROOM!" He probably shouldn't had revealed that to basically everyone downstairs.

        It took a moment for Sam to respond back, like she was processing what he had just told her. "...I DIDN'T INTERRUPT ANYTHING, DID I?!" she shouted in question, curious. She couldn't help but feel that she interrupted something, regardless of her not going upstairs because of the silence before Josh's response a moment ago.

        "Uh…" Hazel blushed a little once more and she shouted to Sam instead of Josh. "NOT REALLY!" she lied loudly. All that was interrupted was a very hot make-out session that might had turned into something more if no interruptions had been made at all.

        "LIAR!" Hazel and Josh heard Chris shout randomly almost immediately after Hazel had shouted to Sam. Hazel half-smiled and she shook her head, silently laughing. It made perfect sense that Chris would add in his own thoughts. It just was how Chris was.

        Josh chuckled a bit and he responded back with more shouting. Obviously. "WE'LL BE DOWN IN A SECOND, I SWEAR!"

        "OKAY!" Chris and Sam shouted together, the shouting fest ending.

        Hazel continued to half-smile and she shake her head. "We really have some awesome friends, huh?" Sam and Chris were the only two out of everyone there that she and Josh both actually truly considered friends. Everyone else, apart from Hazel's sister and Josh's sisters, were just the kind of friends you'd have for a while before they'd vanish to do their own thing.

        "Yeah," Josh replied. He removed himself from the bed. "But they are also a bunch of cock-blockers." He helped Hazel off the bed as she laughed at his remark. He smiled and blushed slightly as she gave him a quick kiss on the cheek.

        "Let's go before they send a search party," Hazel suggested, placing her right hand in his left one. Josh laughed in response, nodding and they both approached the door. Josh opened it and they both headed out of his bedroom, heading down to where all of their friends, and their individual siblings, were...

**~Sometime After 1 AM~**

        Beth, Chris, Hazel, and Josh were in the kitchen, doing various things. Chris and Josh had gotten out some drinks (a.k.a. beer), slowly getting drunk off their asses. Beth and Hazel stood near the kitchen counter where the drinking drunks were located, the two males sitting down while the two females remained standing on either side of them; Beth was on the side where Chris was sitting and Hazel was on the side where Josh was sitting, obviously. Hannah had gone into her bedroom at some point in the night, before the four had entered the kitchen, and the others were still located in the main room, just as before.

        "Baaabe," Josh slurred a tad. "You gotta try some of this shiiit." He stared at Hazel with a huge smile on his face, holding out a beer bottle.

        Hazel giggled at her drunken boyfriend and she shook her head. "No, thank you. I'll pass on that offer."

        "W-Why don't you want to driiink with us?" Chris asked, slurring a tad as well and stuttering a bit.

        "Let's see. I don't want to end up waking up naked beside someone on a bed or a couch," Hazel stated. Especially if it wasn't Josh she'd be waking up beside. Additionally, she didn't want to lose her virginity while in a state of being drunk. It just wouldn't mean anything if that happened. She wanted her first to be special, to actually mean something. She didn't want to regret it happening when the time finally came.

        "Whaat's so bad about thaat?" Josh slurred, winking at her. "I wouldn't mind having thaaat happen." He wasn't thinking, clearly, thanks to the beer. Yay, alcohol.

        Hazel smirked a little. "You would mind if the person laying next to me wasn't you."

        "Hmmmm, good poiiint." Josh moved the beer bottle away from Hazel. "Nooo beer for yooou." He took another sip of the beer, a rather long sip at that. He let out a drunken laugh afterwards, before downing the bottle completely. He certainly loved his alcoholic beverages.

        Hazel giggled at him, very amused by his behavior. He really was getting drunk off his ass and she had never seen him get that drunk before. Additionally, at least he wasn't an angry or violent drunk, just a silly one. She turned her head as she watched Beth move over to the nearby window. Hazel moved around the kitchen counter, walking to where Beth stood. Just because she wanted to be near her best friend all of a sudden. "Can I look out the window with you?" she asked Beth, even though she really didn't need to; window privileges were for everyone.

        Beth smiled brightly as she looked over at Hazel. "Nope. This is my window. I won't share it," she joked. "I'll never share my window with you or anyone." Oh, snap. Window privileges denied.

        Hazel pouted falsely, pretending like she was actually sad about that. "Awww… B-But, I wanna look out the pretty window so I can see all of the pretty snow… You can't deny me the right to look at pretty things, Beth! You just can't! I demand that I have my window privileges!"

       Beth laughed a little and she continued to smile. "Alright, you've convinced me. You can look out the window with me,  _but_  you can't touch it. Touching it is off limits." She was joking around, about the not touching the window part, of course. She just loved joking around with Hazel ( _A/N: if that wasn't obvious enough already to all of you_ ). It made their conversations much more lively.

        "Yes!" Hazel cheered, fist pumping the air. She laughed at herself and she stared out the window, looking at the snow with Beth. It was such a lovely night, but they had no clue that something terrible would be occurring soon. Something that would change absolutely everything for everyone...

**~Just Before 2 AM~**

        Chris and Josh were passed out at the kitchen counter, all thanks to the beer they downed together. Beth and Hazel were still staring out of the window. They hadn't spoken once to each other since the little joke fest the two had and the room had gotten even more quieter when the two drunks passed out, their drunken laughs and speech silenced. Everything seemed quite peaceful. Nobody else was in sight, mainly because everyone was either still in the main room or in a bedroom somewhere, doing whatever.

        "It's lovely here, to be honest with you," Hazel remarked softly, breaking the silence that she was beginning to dread. "I always loved the snow. It's so pretty and it's nice playing in it. Or even walking in it." She smiled a little to herself. "You could say that my favorite season is winter." Despite that she tended to despise the cold, she absolutely loved when winter came along.

        "Wanna go outside and toss some snowballs around?" Beth asked, very clearly bored.

        Hazel glanced at her best friend, one of her eyebrows raising in question. "It's a little late for that, don't you think?"

        "When the sun's up, then," Beth suggested. A little snowball fight in the morning would be a grand way to start the new day.

        "Sounds like a plan but don't you start thinking that you're going to win at a snowball fight when I'm your opponent." Hazel smirked. "I'm the snowball fighting champion, bitch. I will take you down in mere seconds."

        Beth let out a laugh and she looked at Hazel, smiling. "I guess we'll just have to see what happens tomorrow. It could be me kicking your ass so don't get cocky, bitch." Hazel laughed this time and she lightly shoved Beth before she turned her head back towards the window, Beth doing the same. They both had something to look forward to in the morning...

        Unbeknownst to the two of them (and the passed out drunks, obviously), four of their friends had entered the room and they were standing on the other side of the large kitchen counter, standing far enough away from it that they could not be heard by the two females if they (the group of four) were to whisper to one another. The four friends were Emily, Jess, Mike, and Sam, and by the looks of it, Emily and Jess were up to some mischief. Jess strode away from Emily, Mike, and Sam momentarily, moving towards the kitchen counter. She placed a piece of paper onto said counter before twirling back around and heading back towards her three friends with a large smile on her face. Mike rubbed the back of his head, a look of reluctance on his face; he didn't seem to want to be a part of what was taking place. Sam had a frown on her face, showing that she really didn't like what was occurring herself. Emily had a smile on her face, it matching with the one on Jess' face ( _A/N: Duh, where else would that smile be, self? On her ass?_ ).

        Emily spoke in a hushed tone. "Oh my god, I can't believe you actually did this." She was happily surprised that Jess was going to go through with the prank. In fact, Hannah deserved to have this prank pulled on her. She was trying so pathetically hard to get with her (Emily's) boyfriend, after all.

        "Shh, shh, shh," Jess hushed her. She didn't want them to get caught in the middle of it before they could even get to the fun part.

        Sam stared at Jess but her words were directed towards all three of them. Well, maybe just towards mostly Jess and Emily since they seemed to be the main culprits of the prank-to-be. "Don't you guys think this is a little bit cruel?" she questioned. She knew what the prank was all about; Hannah's crush on Mike. Emily and Jess had came up with it, creating the fake note from Mike but of course, they needed Mike to write it so that was part one of his two part session in the prank. All of them knew that Hannah would most likely fall for the trick because of how 'in love' she was with Mike, so perhaps this really was a little bit cruel after all.

        "Oh, come on. She deserves it," Jess defended. She knew her actions were frowned upon but in her mind, as well as Emily's, Hannah deserved it for being a little slut. Mike was taken, but quite noticeably, Hannah didn't really give a damn about that and she was willing to go to great lengths in order to be with him instead of him being with Emily. Maybe this little prank would make her step down from her attempts.

        "It's not her fault that she has a huge crush on Mike," Sam defended in return. No one could choose whom their crush would be. It was an involuntary emotion that tended to develop at random for different reasons, such as because of a guy's looks or his personality.

        Jess completely ignored Sam's defense towards Hannah. "Hannah's been making the moves on him. I'm just looking out for my girl, Em." She turned away from them and she headed towards the double doors that lead back into the main room, opening one of said doors. She headed inside where Ashley and Matt were standing, the two of them waiting for everyone. Jess was smiling and she gave a nod towards her two waiting friends, her little signal for saying that she placed the note and the prank could start commencing further.

        Emily had followed close behind Jess with Mike and Sam right behind her. She had a smile on her face still. "Just because he's class pres doesn't mean he belongs to everyone. Mike is  _my_  man," Emily stated matter-of-factly as she glanced back towards Mike ( _A/N: possessive little shit, I was just like this when I had a lover)_.

        "Hey, Em. I'm not anybody's man," Mike told her. He didn't belong to anyone, even if he was dating her.

        "Whatever you say, Darling," Emily giggled, not really listening to what he told her because she honestly didn't care. She followed Jess down the corridor, most of the others following close behind. Sam, however, headed up the nearby stairs to look for Hannah. She (Sam) walked through the hallway nearby and opened a door, heading through it and closing said door behind her. Once within the other section of the lodge, she stopped walking and looked back towards the door she entered from. She opened her mouth and for a second, no words came out but she soon called out for Hannah, wanting to quickly warn her about the prank...

        In one of the empty bedrooms (or guest rooms) downstairs, Ashley let out a giggle as she hid behind a partition. To the left of where she was hiding, Matt was stepping into the cabinets with a selfie stick in his right hand and he closed the doors of the cabinets shortly after he had placed himself completely inside of it. Across from them, Emily and Jess were getting underneath the bed, giggling uncontrollably. Mike was the only one whom did not hide since he was the one that had to pretend he wanted to do things with Hannah (a.k.a. part two of his session within the prank) and he stood beside the bed, shifting every now and then as he waited.

        During the time the friends were starting to hide, Hannah had gone into the kitchen. She went unnoticed by Beth and Hazel, and she was quick to discover the note that laid on the kitchen counter. Flipping it over, she quickly read it to herself and a large smile appeared on her face, blush filling her cheeks. Mike finally wanted to be with her instead of with Emily. She quickly went to get a candle from the next room, one that was already lit, and she headed towards the bedroom where her friends were hiding (unbeknownst to her), where Mike was waiting for her. Upon hearing Hannah approaching the room, Emily placed her giggling under control and instructed the other girls to be quiet since Ashley and Jess had also been giggling quite a bit. "Mike?" Hannah whispered as she grew closer to the bedroom Mike was standing within. She soon reached out to the door, turning the doorknob and pushing the door open gently. "Mike, it's Hannah," she stated as she stepped inside, her eyes quickly locating Mike. She closed the door gently behind her.

        "Hey, Hannah," Mike greeted seductively...

**~The Kitchen~**

        As the prank was commencing, Beth and Hazel remained where they were, still looking out the window while the guys, Chris and Josh, remained passed out. The four of them had no clue as to what was occurring in one of the bedrooms and they knew nothing of what would occur in the close future. Oblivious to their surroundings, Beth and Hazel continued to look at all of the snow outside. However, the two young teenagers found themselves becoming unsettled as they both spotted a dark figure standing by a tree across the house and they watched as it strode away into the snowy forest with something sharp in its hand.

        "Hey..." Beth started hesitatingly. "Did you see that?" she asked Hazel, unsure.

        "I most certainly did," Hazel quickly answered. "Didn't your father say it would just be us this weekend?" Why was someone else there?

        "Yeah," Beth stated. She and Hazel both looked away from the window, the two of them heading towards the kitchen counter where Chris and Josh were located. "Josh?" Beth questioned, wondering if Josh would awaken.

        "I highly doubt he can hear you, Beth," Hazel said. "He drank a lot of that shit. Same with Chris. They are going to have such huge headaches when they awaken from their slumber." She shook her head. "Boys and their alcohol." ( _A/N: was gonna have her reference Supernatural by speaking of the Winchesters but decided against it)_  She was beginning to wish that the two hadn't cracked open the bottles, now that she knew a stranger was lurking within the woodland. Beth spotted a note sitting at the far left end of the kitchen counter from where she and Hazel were standing. She walked to the other end of the counter, picking up the paper and flipping it over so that she could read what was written on it. Hazel followed behind her and she looked over her shoulder, beginning to read the note out loud in a boyish tone (as boyish as she could make it sound, anyways). "' _Hannah, you look so damn hot in that shirt but I bet you're even hotter out of it. Come to the guest room at two am. Smiley face, Mike, and three x's._ '" Hazel rolled her eyes and scoffed, shaking her head. "I wonder if Hannah has seen this bullshit yet. It's obviously fake. Like, seriously, what guy puts x's in his notes?" ( _A/N: Probably a gay one. No offense_ ).

        "Oh my God. What'd my naive sister get herself into now?" Beth wondered out aloud, shaking her head a bit before she put the note back down on the counter. Seriously, what  _did_  Hannah get herself into this time?

        "She isn't that naive," Hazel defended. However, she started to rethink her words immediately after saying them. Hannah was so in love with Mike that she would believe that the note was real, that he truly wanted to be with her now instead of Emily. "...Actually, she is pretty naive. I retract my defense."

        Beth cracked a smile and snickered as she walked around the large kitchen counter to where Josh was. He had his head laying in his arms and he was still unconscious, and across from him, Chris was in the same position. Beth picked up the beer bottle that laid beside Josh's head. She shook her head slightly and she pat her passed out brother on the shoulder. "Jeez, Josh. Once again, brother, you've outdone us all." Hazel leaned against the counter from the other side and she smiled, her eyes locked on Josh's unconscious form...

**~Guest Room~**

        Within the guest room, Hannah placed her candle on the dresser to her left and she looked at Mike, smiling. "I got your note," she informed him sheepishly. She was so nervous, so shy about what she thought was going to occur; she believed he wanted to have sex with her. Why else would he ask for her to get shirtless in the note? He wanted her more than Emily. He wanted to get down and dirty with her instead of with Emily. She was incredibly happy about that. She was finally,  _finally_  getting her wish. This is what she had wanted to happen on this little trip to begin with, to finally get with Mike in some sort of fashion.

        "Glad you could make it," Mike told her, smiling back at her. Hannah continued to smile shyly and she looked down for a moment before looking back up at him. "Maybe we should start with a little, you know, making out and see where it goes from there," he said to her, seductively. Hannah hesitated for a moment, due to her being nervous, and she moved her hands up to her blouse slowly. "Ohhhhhh, hell yeah," Mike commented as Hannah began to unbutton a few buttons of her blouse. For a guy with a girlfriend, a girlfriend who was witnessing all this from under the bed, Mike seemed to be enjoying the little show more than he probably should've but it was a good thing that Emily couldn't see his face since she was, as stated, underneath the bed.

        Underneath the bed, Jess had a better view of what was going on and she couldn't keep herself from whispering too loudly. "Oh my God, she's taking her shirt off!" Laying beside her under the bed, Emily didn't look too pleased with hearing this information ( _A/N: What the fuck were you expecting her to do, Emily? Goddamn, girl. Think your pranks through entirely next time)_.

        Thanks to Jess whispering far too loudly, Hannah heard her. "What...?" She leaned down a tad as she took a step back and she looked underneath the bed, immediately spotting Emily and Jess. "Oh my God!" Hannah exclaimed as she crossed her arms over her chest that was currently slightly bare. She watched in horror, and in shock, as Ashley, Emily, Jess, and Matt removed themselves from their hiding places. She was quick to notice the selfie stick within Matt's hand, realizing that he was filming what was happening. "Matt?!" She looked around at all of her friends whom had been hiding. "What are you doing here?!" She couldn't believe her eyes. She didn't want to believe it. She had been tricked by all of them, people she thought were her friends. Tricked by her own crush...

        Behind her, Sam opened the door up and she stepped inside, the door shutting after she walked in. She frowned as she realized that she was far too late to stop anything from happening. Hannah looked at her for a moment before she looked towards Mike, who had moved closer to her. "Uh, I'm sorry, Hannah. This all got outta hand, but..." Mike began to say while Sam said, "Hannah, hey honey... Don't... It was just a-" Hannah shook her head at all of them, turning towards the door and opening it, striding out of the room. "...stupid prank," Sam finished as the bedroom door shut by itself. Sam looked at all of her friends, looking quite furious. "You guys are jerks, you know that?" She turned towards the door and opened it, quickly following behind Hannah. "Hannah!" she called out.

**~The Kitchen~**

        Beth turned her head to look at Hazel, who was still staring at the unconscious Josh, when she spotted Hannah going by the window. Not actually realizing who it was, she gasped and Hazel snapped out of her trance, quickly looking towards Beth. "What's wrong?" she asked Beth, alerted. "Did you see that stranger again?" She turned around to look at the window, looking for any trance of that person they had seen earlier ( _A/N: Beth and Hazel are on opposite sides of the counter, by the way_ ).

        "There's someone outside!" Beth exclaimed, not exactly answering Hazel's second question.

        "Didn't we establish that fact earlier?" Hazel questioned, surprisingly calm despite being on alert. She continued looking at the window, even re-approaching it to get a better look outside. "Was it that stranger we saw?" she repeated. She needed to get the facts straight before she started freaking out, too. It could've been one of their friends for all they knew. She looked back towards Beth, waiting for an answer and she saw a look of panic on Beth's face. "Come on, Beth. Use your words. Was it the stranger?"

        "I-I don't know!" Beth exclaimed. "But it was closer this time!" She placed her hands on her unconscious brother that she hadn't moved away from. "Josh! Josh!" She was really scared and she really wanted her brother to be awake, to protect her from harm like a brother was suppose to.

        "He isn't going to wake up any time soon." Hazel moved away from the window and she walked around the kitchen counter, beginning to head into the main room. She opened up one of the doors that stood in her path. "Come on," she instructed Beth. The only way they were going to find out who it was, was by asking their friends if anyone went for a walk or if they had seen anyone themselves. She headed into the main room quickly.

        "Fuck," Beth cursed. She sprinted after Hazel, entering the main room seconds after Hazel did. Upon entering, the two of them spotted a few of their friends running down the corridor. "What the hell...?" Beth wondered. She grabbed her fuchsia winter coat that was laying on a sofa chair and she placed it upon her body as she headed after everyone, Hazel right beside her as she placed on her navy winter coat that had been laying of the railing of the nearby staircase. What was happening? What did they miss?

        Standing outside, Sam called out to her friend in distress. "Hannah!" Standing around her was Ashley, Emily, Jess, Matt, and Mike. Beth and Hazel pushed past Matt and Mike, stepping outside as well. The two of them moved to the front of the group, confused as they looked towards the snowy woodland before they turned around to look at their friends, wanting an explanation on what was occurring.

        "What happened?" Hazel asked them gently, confusion remaining clear on her face. She additionally didn't like what was going on, whatever it was. It was making her become more unsettled than she had been already. It was becoming hard for her to remain calm. First, she and Beth spotted somebody outside the lodge, then, Beth saw someone again and couldn't tell who it was because of some reason despite the person being closer to the window, and now, something has caused Hannah to run off and Hazel didn't like where her mind was going.

        "What's going on? Where's my sister going?" Beth questioned everyone.

        "Ugh, it's fine," Jess told them, attempting to wave the situation off as something not so important. She even waved her arm towards the snowy woodland that stood before them. "She just can't take a joke." She thought it was pathetic how Hannah ran off like that. It was only a prank to teach her a lesson. It wasn't really a big deal. Well, it wasn't a big deal in her eyes. Surely, Hannah would return later on and they could all just laugh it off like it was nothing.

        Emily stared towards the forest. "It was just a prank, Han!" She rolled her eyes shortly afterwards, not regretting her actions one bit. It wasn't her fault that Hannah couldn't take a joke, one that she so rightfully deserved.

        "What did you do?" Beth questioned them, becoming angry. She wanted to know what kind of prank was made exactly, though she had an idea as to what it was because of the note that she had spotted earlier that night. She looked at them all with so much anger, completely disappointed in all of them. She couldn't believe that they had stooped so low. How could they put Hannah through something like that? Did they not think about how badly Hannah would react when she found out it was a prank the whole time?

        Mike began to speak. "We were just messing around. It wasn't serious-"

        "Cut the bullshit, Mike!" Hazel suddenly yelled. She had become extremely pissed off when she realized that Hannah had indeed seen the note. She wished she could had done something to prevent the prank from happening but she hadn't known that it had been taking place. "We saw the note! Not serious, my ass! You guys left her a note, saying that you, Mike, wanted to see her shirtless and she obviously believed it because she is in love with you!" She glared at everyone, not knowing that Sam wasn't really a part of it. She couldn't even believe that her own sister had been a part of it and that just made her even more pissed. She thought Ashley knew better than to be a part of something like that. "How could you guys do something like this?! I know that Hannah was becoming obsessed with Mike but that didn't give any of you a good reason to stoop this fucking low! And you know what?!" She growled lowly and screamed at the top of her lungs. "I FUCKING HATE ALL OF YOU!" She turned away from all of them, sprinting towards the woodland. "HANNAH!"

        Beth's eyes followed Hazel and she quickly looked at her friends, glaring at them as Hazel had. "You jerks!" She was quick to head into the woodland after Hazel, wishing to find Hannah as well and not wanting Hazel to be alone in her search. "Wait for me, Hazel!" She, then, called out for her sister. "HANNAH!" She and Hazel were taking a large risk, heading into a snowstorm, but it was worth it because Hannah was out there, alone and upset.

        Mike shifted uncomfortably from where he stood. "So..." he hesitated. "Should we go after them?"

        Sam looked towards Mike, giving him a very angry look. "Y'know, I kinda think you're the last person any of them want to see right now, Mike." The person she was the most pissed off at was herself. She could've stopped it. She hadn't found Hannah quick enough. She could've went back and torn up the note. She could've done anything. She hadn't tried hard enough to find her and when she finally did, it was far too late and she regretted that.

        The others around her stood silent, some shifting uncomfortably like Mike while others rolled their eyes, uncaring. The only one who appeared to be showing the deepest regret from being a part of the prank was Ashley, tears beginning to form in her eyes. Her younger sister had just told her, and the others, that she hated them. That had to have hurt her feelings far much worse than it had the others because the two of them were related. It was taking her a lot of strength not to suddenly drop onto her knees and cry like a small lost child...

**~The Forest~**

        Beth and Hazel ran through the snowy woodland, jumping over a few fallen tree trunks as they began their little quest to find Hannah. They eventually came across a two-way path, where they could either go down the steps safely or skip the steps and risk hurting themselves by jumping down the platform. Hazel risked the jump and she landed gracefully, somehow, upon the snow covered ground below, swiftly missing a medium-sized boulder that was to her left while Beth just simply ran down the steps like a normal person would. Hazel impatiently waited for her at the end of the stairs, her having jogged over to them, and they both continued their running through the winter woodland together.

        "Damn it, she went far!" Hazel yelled in complaint as she ran beside Beth, panting a little. "She's really fast on her feet!" ( _A/N: Hannah is the human, and female, Sonic, obviously)_

        "Wouldn't you do the same?!" Beth yelled in question, keeping up with her as they ran through the forest.

        "Probably!" Hazel yelled in response. "I never want to find out, though! Let's just hurry up and find her! Who knows what's out here at this time of night!" She was worried for Hannah's safety; she could possibly be attacked by a bear or something out there. Hopefully, the two of them would find her unharmed and they could return to the lodge quickly afterwards. She really hoped Hannah was fine and she prayed silently that everything was going to turn out alright in the end. They'd just have to get their revenge somehow on the assholes that they called friends.

        The two of them eventually came across another two-way path. On their right, rustling in the bushes could be heard and on the left, footprints were formed in the snow. Beth looked both ways, hesitating to make a move. She wasn't sure which direction she should take. "Maybe we should split up," she suggested, no longer yelling as she looked over at Hazel. "Cover more ground."

        Hazel turned her head towards Beth, horrified by the idea. "Fuck no! We're safer together than apart! Haven't you watched horror movies or fucking  _Supernatural_?! You should never split up! Never! Things usually go wrong when you split up!" She didn't want to risk losing Beth in the forest. They needed to stay together and they needed to find Hannah together. Then, they needed to return to the lodge  _together_.

        "Well, which way should we go?!" Beth questioned, yelling once again.

        "Uh..." Hazel looked down both of the paths before making her decision. "Follow the footprints! A bear or birds could be making those noises!" She grabbed onto Beth's wrist and they both sprinted down the left path, following the footprints and running by a few deer. They heard some twigs breaking near them and they both jumped, entirely startled. The two of them additionally almost grabbed onto each other. "Holy shit! I fucking hate the woods! Forest! Whatever!" Hazel exclaimed, letting out a grunt of anger. The sooner they found Hannah, the better.

        "Jesus! Fuck, shit!" Beth cursed loudly, looking around to see if anything or anyone was watching them. She didn't want to be in there any longer but they really needed to find Hannah. She was their first priority and her safety came before their own. The two females, then, re-commenced running once again, no longer seeing any footprints. They were wandering around aimlessly at that point, trying desperately to quickly find Hannah. "Damn it, Hannah. Where are you?" Beth wondered lowly as she and Hazel came to a temporary stop, standing by the edge of a semi-medium drop.

        "This way," Hazel instructed. The two of them dropped down from where they stood, getting deeper and deeper into the forest. Beth pulled out her cell-phone and Hazel grunted in disapproval. "This isn't the best time for a selfie, Beth," she remarked.

        Beth glanced at her, glaring. "I was going to use the flashlight from my phone to light the way."

        "Alright. I'm sorry," Hazel apologized. She gestured her arm at Beth and then at the path ahead of Beth. "Carry on. You may lead the way, Cochise," she continued. Beth turned her head towards Hazel completely, staring at her. Hazel blinked, staring back. "What? Did I say something incorrectly?"

        Beth shook her head. "It's nothing. You are just, in some ways, like Josh," she explained. She looked at her phone and unlocked it. She, then, quickly turned on the flashlight to her phone. "Let there be light."

        Hazel laughed slightly at Beth's last remark before speaking about the previous one. "That's why we're perfect for one another," Hazel stated, half smiling. "Anyways, the sooner we find Hannah, the better. I want out of these creepy woodlands." Beth nodded in agreement. The two of them began to speed-walk down the path ahead of them. "Hannah!" Hazel called out as she followed close behind Beth. They hadn't sped walked very long when a deer ran out in front of them, scaring the absolute shit out of Hazel. "Sheesh! Fucking deer! Gave a bitch a heart attack! God-Damn!" She placed her right hand to her chest as she continued to follow Beth, slowly calming down from that startlement fest as Beth semi-snickered at her. Unbeknownst to them, they were heading straight towards Hannah and potential danger.

        As they grew closer and closer to Hannah's location, they saw a wave of flames appear and disappear through the trees. Beth jumped at the sight of it and Hazel had stared in horror at what she witnessed, both of them pausing their walking for a moment. "What the hell was that?!" Beth questioned.

        "Uh... Um... I think that it could've been some sort of flamethrower... Unless, you know, fire-breathing dragons suddenly started to exist and we didn't get the memo," Hazel replied nervously. She was shaking a bit and it wasn't from the cold; she was getting very scared and she was becoming a bit anxious. "L-Let's just find Hannah already so we c-can get back to the lodge," she stuttered.

        "Yeah," Beth agreed. She re-commenced walking again, Hazel following close behind her. Not even a minute later, Hannah appeared in their line of sight, crouching down in the snow with tears streaming down her cheeks. Her back was turned towards them and her arms were wrapped around her chest. She was without proper winter wear. "Hannah!" Beth exclaimed.

        "Hello?" Hannah turned her head towards them as they both ran over to her. "Beth? Hazel?" She was surprised, but happy, to see that someone had came after her in her time of need. She still couldn't believe her friends had pulled that horrible prank on her. She couldn't believe that Mike had been a part of it, too. She may had been wanting to get with Mike but she didn't deserve a prank like that. At least, she didn't believe she deserved something like that to happen. She felt so humiliated, so dirty. Her friends were probably going to post it online for everyone to see when they left and her whole reputation would be ruined...

        "Oh my God, you must be freezing," Beth worried. She quickly removed her winter coat and gave it to Hannah, putting it around her. "Here, take my coat." She didn't care about getting sick. Hannah needed it the most after all that shit she just went through.

        "Are you okay?" Hazel asked Hannah. "If it makes you feel any better, I gave them all a piece of my mind," she weakly revealed.

        Hannah stood up, putting her arms into the sleeves of the coat and she zipped it up. She ignored the last part Hazel had said, still very upset. "I'm such an idiot! I'm so dumb..." She fell for the trick so fast because she was so obsessed with being with Mike. She hadn't been thinking clearly. She felt so used by everyone.

        "You're not an idiot, nor are you dum-" Hazel stopped speaking when noises started occurring behind them. She quickly turned around, backing towards Beth and Hannah slowly. That sound was nothing close to any kind of animal known to any of them. "...What...was that...?" she softly questioned. Beth, Hannah, and Hazel stared towards where the noise was coming from, all three of them backing away slowly now before they all completely turned around and started taking off running in the opposite direction together. The creature, called a Wendigo, went after them but they could not see it clearly, nor did they want to look back to see what it looked like. The only thing on their mind in that moment was getting to a safe place after getting the fuck outta there.

        Hannah tripped as the three of them ran across a broken walkway, causing Beth to go back and help her up while Hazel waited for them. They quickly started running again as Beth's phone was lost, unbeknownst to them. Hazel was running ahead of Beth and Hannah, turning right. Beth and Hannah, whom were running beside each other, ended up temporarily running in different directions, Beth heading after Hazel and Hannah continuing to run straight. Beth, however, had quickly noticed that Hannah hadn't gone the correct way and went to follow her, Hazel running off alone without any knowledge that her two best friends weren't following her anymore...

        Beth and Hannah ran to the edge of a cliff. They both turned around, looking towards the threat that was slowly approaching them. They didn't get a clear look at the creature but they knew that it was getting closer. "No!" Beth yelled. "No, shit, no! Get back!" Hannah kept moving backwards and she pulled Beth along with her since they were holding hands suddenly. Hannah lost her balance when she reached the edge and fell, bringing Beth down with her. Thankfully, Beth was able to grip onto a branch with her left hand while her right hand remained gripping Hannah's left hand. "Hold on!" The figure that Beth and Hazel had spotted earlier that night at the lodge suddenly appeared at the edge of the cliff, having just quickly scared the Wendigo away momentarily with his flamethrower. He reached one of his arms out, trying to help them as quickly as he could before the Wendigo came back. Beth had two options in front of her; let go of Hannah to attempt to save herself and possibly be murdered by the person trying to help her or let go of the branch and die with her sister. Her choice was quite clear and she didn't have to think twice about it after realizing these options. She released her grip on the branch and she fell off the cliff with her sister, both of them screaming. Hannah's screaming came to an end as she hit the bottom of the hill roughly and Beth's screaming came to an end before that, her back impacting against a large boulder before she rolled down the hill and landed at the bottom with her unconscious sister, the two of them never to be seen alive again ( _A/N: Well, that's true since Hannah isn't exactly alive when they see her again_ )...

        With Hazel, she was still running in the direction in which she believed would lead her and her best friends back to the lodge. She had been running for some time and only chose right then to look back, noticing that Beth and Hannah weren't right behind her. "Shit!" she cursed loudly. She stopped her running momentarily to twirl in a circle, looking around frantically for the two. "Beth! Hannah! Where are you?!" She spotted the stairs that Beth had went down earlier and she quickly climbed up them, eventually moving to stand where she had jumped off earlier. "Beth! Hannah!" she called out again. She was hoping that maybe they were just a bit behind. She turned quickly, attempting to look around more in case there were other ways for them to get up to where she was and she lost her footing on the edge of the platform she was standing on. She let out a small scream as she fell backwards off the semi-broken platform, her scream cutting off as her head made contact with a boulder at the bottom and she instantly lost consciousness as she landed on her right arm, her body having turned sideways as she fell...

        About ten minutes after Hazel had lost consciousness, some of her friends (including her sister) had decided to go looking for her, Beth, and Hannah. Ashley, Matt, and Sam were jogging through the woods, growing closer to where Hazel's unconscious form was located. While Emily had been the only one whom didn't seem all that worried that the three females hadn't came back yet because she believed them to be alright, everyone else had became, slightly and greatly, worried that something may had happened to them. That's when Emily suggested for Ashley, Matt, and Sam to go searching for them, seeing that everyone else was becoming so paranoid about something bad happening.

        "I hope they're okay," Ashley sniffled. She had been crying since Hazel had stated she hated her (and the others). She had ended up starting to cry more because of her negative thoughts. She couldn't help but think of the possibilities that Beth, Hannah, and Hazel could never come back because of them pulling that stupid prank. She didn't want the last memory of her sister to be a horrid argument. "We have to find them!"

        "If you guys hadn't done that stupid prank in the first place, none of this would've happened," Sam pointed out angrily. "They'll be fine," she told her, speaking more gently. She wanted them to be okay, too. "We'll find them soon." Hopefully.

        "I wouldn't have been a part of it if I knew that Hazel would become so upset about it," Matt stated. He and Hazel had been really good friends or had been on very friendly terms with one another, but he knew that because of his actions, that friendship of theirs was probably over with or perhaps their bond was almost completely shattered. He should've thought things through first before diving right into the prank with everyone else. He had been bored, though, so he didn't want to think about any consequences of their actions. He was really regretting his decision making.

        "You two and the others owe Hannah an apology after this. Same goes for you guys telling Beth and Hazel you're sorry for causing them to head after her in the first place. And you need to apologize for causing all of them to be upset because of a stupid prank," Sam told them. "This way."

        The three of them approached the stairs and the gap at the top of the platform. They were in the exact location where Hazel had slipped and fallen. All they needed to do was look straight down from the edge of the platform, something none of them did. Not right away. Matt and Sam headed down the stairs carefully as Ashley sniffled again, peering over the edge of the platform after a moment. The second she saw Hazel's unconscious body, she let out a scream and she began crying again as she dropped to her knees. "NOOOO! HAZEL!" She continued to cry and scream as she stared down at Hazel. Upon hearing Ashley's screaming cries, Matt and Sam quickly ran down the stairs, heading over to where Ashley was looking down at. Hazel laid there in the cold snow, unconscious but alive, with a bruise forming on her head. She was lucky that she hadn't hit her head against the boulder harder or that she hadn't fallen from a higher platform. Otherwise, there would've been some serious damage or she may had even died. However, it was possible that some damage had been done with that hit to the head regardless of height from the fall.

        Sam crouched down beside Hazel, a concerned expression upon her face. "Oh my God. Hazel." She had been hoping that they'd find them all completely unharmed, but that wasn't as likely anymore.

        "Fuck!" Matt stood by Sam and the unconscious Hazel, his hands behind his head as he stared down at Hazel with horror-struck eyes. "Is she...?" Ashley's loud sobbing could be heard from above them as she remained where she was. Hazel couldn't be dead. A fall like that couldn't have killed her, right? Unfortunately, he didn't know she was just unconscious so panic filled his being as he thought of her being dead. She had to be alive, she just had to be...

        Sam quickly searched for a pulse and she sighed in relief when she found one. "She's alive but she's freezing. We need to get her back to the lodge. She could die if we don't hurry." She couldn't lose any of her friends and as much as she wanted to continue the search for the Washington twins, they really needed to get Hazel back and quickly. They couldn't risk her dying from various circumstances.

        Matt nodded quickly. "I'll carry her." Sam stood up and stepped to the side as Matt took a few steps forward, standing where Sam had once been. He crouched down and picked Hazel up, carrying her bridal style. They quickly and carefully headed back up the stairs. They needed to hurry.

        Ashley stood up quickly, her eyes on Hazel's form. "S-She's okay?! P-Please tell me she's alive!" She couldn't lose her sister. She just couldn't. She couldn't die so soon. She couldn't die long before her time. She just couldn't. No one deserved to die because of some prank. God, she hoped that they'd find Beth and Hannah in better condition than Hazel...

        "She is, but if we don't get her back to the lodge, she might not be," Sam informed her quickly, speaking as calmly as she could manage in this situation. Ashley's eyes widened and she followed the two of them as they lead the way back to the lodge. The three of them silently prayed that Hazel would wake up and that they would eventually find the remaining missing friends of theirs...

**~The Lodge~**

        "Is she alright?!"

        "Hazel!"

        "What the fuck happened?!"

        Matt carried Hazel into the lodge quickly and placed her on the nearest couch. Ashley, Jess, Mike, Sam, and the currently awake hangover buds were right behind him. Chris and Josh had awoken just minutes ago, completely clueless as to what happened (and how they managed to wake up just a couple of hours after having passed out from being drunk, that was unknown). Fear filled Josh's being and he didn't hesitate to push Matt to the side once Hazel was placed on the couch. He crouched down beside it, quickly gripping onto one of his unconscious girlfriend's hands. He looked at her with such great worry and fear in his eyes. He turned to look at everyone, Chris moving to crouch beside him as he took a look at Hazel's injury. "What happened?!" Josh exclaimed. "Why does she have a bruise on her head?! Why is she so cold?!"

        Sam responded to him, speaking slowly and gently. "Josh, don't freak out, but Hannah was involved in a prank. Beth and Hazel had went after her when she ran off, and..." She released a low sigh. "...Beth and Hannah are still out there somewhere. We were only able to find Hazel. When she wakes up, hopefully she'll be able to tell us everything that happened out there."

        Josh clenched his fist with the hand that wasn't holding onto Hazel. "You guys pranked my sister?! You're the reason why my girlfriend is hurt?! The reason why my sisters are still out there?!" He had never been so pissed in his life. The three most important people in his life had been taken from him while he was passed out. He was lucky to have Hazel back but that didn't make him worry any less about his sisters. All of that mess could've been avoided.

        "I swear that I wasn't involved," Sam defended herself. "I tried to stop it but it was too late. I'm sorry. We'll find your sisters. Everything will be okay." She wasn't so sure about finding his sisters, though. Seeing the shape Hazel was in, she could only imagine what harm had come to Beth and Hannah.

        "It was only a prank," Emily remarked. She wasn't standing close to the couch like everyone else. She wasn't as concern about the situation as everyone else was but that didn't mean she wasn't concerned at all. She just chose to be more level-headed in this scenario and didn't show any of her concern out in the open. This made her seem like a bitch but whatever works with staying calm was fine with her.

        Sam looked at her, glaring. "A prank that has Beth and Hannah out in the snow! They could freeze to death!" She started heading towards one of the several exits. She couldn't just sit around and do nothing. She needed to head back out there. "I need to get back out there and search for them. Who knows what could be out there."

        "I'm coming with you." Josh made a move to stand up as Sam paused at the door.

        Chris placed his hand on Josh's shoulder, pushing him back down in his crouching position. "No, man. You need to stay here with Hazel and get her warm. I'll go with Sam. Besides, you won't be able to do much out there with that headache you've got."

        Josh groaned a bit, already feeling the pain in his head. Chris jinxed him or something. He hadn't felt the pain of a headache until Chris said something. And speaking of headaches. "You have one, too, don't you?" Josh questioned. Chris won't be much help out there either.

        "Yes, but you drank more than me," Chris told him. He stood up and he strode over to where Sam stood. "Let's go." He was worried about Beth and Hannah, about just as much as Sam and Josh were, if not more. Those girls were the siblings of his best friend. Of course he was going to attempt to help find them. He wasn't just going to sit on his ass and wait.

        "I'm coming, too," Mike commented, walking over to them. The more, the merrier.

        Chris, Mike, and Sam headed out of the building, heading out into the cold to search for their friends. Ashley, Matt, and Josh got focused on getting Hazel warm, Ashley and Matt heading off to gather some blankets while Josh attempted to get a fire going inside the fireplace. Emily and Jess looked at one another before they started doing something productive as well, Emily helping Josh get the fire going while Jess helped Ashley and Matt cover Hazel with blankets, the three of them working together to remove Hazel's winter coat beforehand. With the blankets gathered and the fire going, the five of them pushed the couch closer to the fire so that some of its warmth could reach Hazel. After that, Josh lifted Hazel up gently and sat behind her, laying her down against him and wrapping his arms around her as he used his own warmth to attempt to warm her up. Hopefully, she'd wake up soon...

        It was nearly three-thirty in the morning. Chris, Mike, and Sam had returned but they did not have Beth and Hannah with them, having been unable to locate them. Hazel had yet awakened and two cops were on the scene. The officers hadn't been informed of the prank that had occurred, only being given some false information that Hannah had been scared off before Beth and Hazel had gone after her, Hazel being the only one the friends could find. Emily and Jess were sitting in chairs that were placed on either side of the couch by the fireplace. Chris, Mike, and Sam were speaking with the two cops, telling them as much as they could without revealing the prank. Josh had Hazel remaining in his arms and Ashley sat at the end of it, her eyes on Hazel. Matt stood behind the couch, his arms crossed as he, too, watched Hazel. After a few minutes passed by, Hazel groaned softly in Josh's arms. Ashley let out a gasp, followed by a small happy cry. "She's waking up!" she exclaimed. Chris and Sam rushed over to the couch while Mike remained by the officers. The two of them stood beside Matt and near Jess as Hazel slowly began to awaken.

        "...Mmm... Oww... My head... My hand..." Hazel groaned. She opened her eyes slowly and glanced around, meeting the eyes of Ashley, Chris, Matt, and Sam. "...Where am I?" She moved her head slightly to the right and she realized she was laying against someone. With difficulty, she was able to confirm that it was Josh that she was laying upon. "...Hey there, sleepyhead..." she remarked.

        Josh smiled gently, worry still in his eyes. "I'm not the only sleepyhead around these parts," he joked, referring to her and Chris. "You're back at the lodge," he told her, answering her question. He softly stroked her head, running his fingers through her hair.

        "Ashley, Matt, and I found you about a hour ago," Sam informed her. "We're just glad that you're awake now. You had us all worried."

        Hazel slowly sat up with the help of Josh, his arms remaining around her. She held her head with her left hand, feeling pain coming from it still. She knew, for sure, that she had gotten a bruise from the fall, and probably a concussion too, and she had a feeling that she landed on her right hand since it was hurting as much as her head was. "...Are Beth and Hannah here? Did they get back alright?" She needed to know if they were okay.

        Sam hesitated before she answered. "...No. We haven't found them yet."

        Hazel's eyes widened and she quickly turned to look at Sam. "You have to find them!" She hoped that the animal, whatever it was, hadn't gotten to them. She wished that they had followed her or that she had noticed they were gone sooner. She could've stuck by them. They could've made it back together.

        "There are a few officers here who are going to help us do that," Sam explained. "We all just need to hear what happened." Hazel didn't like that no one was out there looking for them right that moment but she nodded shortly. The sooner she told them everything, the faster it would be for them to find Beth and Hannah's location.

        Ashley was sobbing again, her hands to her face. "I'm so sorry that you got hurt, Hazel. I'm sorry for everything that happened. I wish I could undo my actions. I'm so, so sorry." She regretted being a part of the prank so much. She hated it with all her being. She wished she could turn back time...

        Hazel stared at her, her gaze gentle. "And I am sorry that I said I hated you." She looked towards Matt and Sam. "Same for you two. I'm sorry. I don't hate you guys either. I was just angry." She didn't, however, apologize to Emily, Jess, and Mike. Those three were the main culprits of the prank. Well, she was assuming that they were the main culprits. She wasn't going to forgive them so easily. Although, she didn't exactly forgive the others either.

        "I should be the one apologizing to you," Matt replied. "I had no idea that you'd end up getting hurt and-"

        "It's fine..." Hazel mumbled, interrupting him. She didn't want to hear it. She wasn't going to  _actually_  forgive anyone until she saw Beth and Hannah walking into the lodge, meaning Ashley, Matt, and Sam weren't off the hook just yet after all (even though Sam hadn't even been a part of the prank to begin with). She needed to know that they were alive and unharmed before she started forgiving people  _truly_. Although, she didn't hold much of a grudge against Ashley or Matt since she didn't think that they were doing much during the prank, which was correct. They seemed like 'sit and watch' types of people to her, which is what happened.

        "Are you alright?" Chris asked her. She did have a nasty bruise of her head and apparently pain in one of her hands from what he heard earlier.

        "Y-You're okay, right?" Josh asked her. He wasn't about to stop being worried about her. He wasn't going to stop worrying about his sisters, too. Hazel turned her attention towards Josh and he removed his arms from around her, placing his hands on her cheeks. "You're not hurt anywhere else, are you?" he asked, his eyes on her bruised forehead. How she had managed to hit her forehead against the rock (or boulder) when she had fallen backwards was questionable, if she hadn't turned towards her right side as she fell. How she hadn't split her head open upon impact with the boulder was much more questionable but overall, she was lucky that it hadn't occurred.

        "My head hurts like hell and I think my wrist is either sprained or broken." She moved her right hand slightly and winced. "Ouch, bad idea..." She probably shouldn't had done that. She made it hurt worse than it already had been.

        "Don't move it around," Josh instructed her a little too late. He gently grabbed her right arm and pulled it towards him, his eyes on her wrist. Bruises were forming around it. "I think it may just be sprained." But he wasn't a doctor and he couldn't just assume that by just looking at her injury. Hazel would need some medical attention to confirm if her wrist was indeed sprained or indeed broken, same going with if she had a concussion or not.

        "Well, I did land on it when I lost my balance and fell..." Hazel revealed softly. Well, at least, she was assuming that since she couldn't fully remember what happened in that one moment.

        "What happened while you were out there?" Ashley asked, her sobbing under control at last. She sniffled a little bit.

        Hazel opened her mouth to speak but the two officers had finally made their way over to them. One of them spoke to Hazel, speaking kindly and gently. "Miss, tell us all of what you can remember. We need to know where your friends could've gone so that we may find them."

        "Uh... O-Okay... Ummm..." Hazel thought back to what had occurred after she had yelled at her friends. "Beth and I had went after Hannah. We ran for a while and we went down this path to the left that lead to a small drop. Beth used her phone to light the way... We continued but instead of running, we were just walking really fast. We...saw something. I think someone else might be here, I don't know for sure though. We couldn't see very well and all we saw was some fire, but earlier, before we had left, Beth and I had saw a figure heading into the forest. Anyways, we... We had found Hannah and...something was hiding near us. Some kind of animal, I couldn't see what it was. We started running and after a while, I looked back and I didn't see them with me. I just thought that...that maybe they were just behind me a bit so I climbed up the steps of a broken platform and stood by the edge of it. I had turned, ready to go back and search for them when I lost my balance and fell. I landed on my right side, had to have for my hand to be hurting like it is. I hit my head on a rock, I'm assuming, and then, I woke up here..." Hazel started to become teary-eyed as she stared at the officers standing in front of her. "You have to find Beth and Hannah... Please..."

        "We'll do our best to find your friends," the second officer responded. He looked at his partner, whom nodded, and they both headed out, walking past Mike whom had stayed by the door.

        Sam reached over the couch and placed her hand on Hazel's right shoulder. "Don't worry. Beth and Hannah will be back soon."

        Hazel didn't answer her. She just laid her head against Josh's chest and let her tears fly. Matt and Sam moved away from the couch, gesturing for Emily and Jess to move away as well, the two girls doing exactly that. Chris walked around the couch and pulled Ashley from it, leading her away. They were all giving Hazel and Josh some time alone. "I want them to be here..." Hazel whispered to Josh. "I want them to be here..." she repeated, continuing to do so as she sobbed. "I want them to be here..."

        "I want them back here, too..." Josh whispered back, finally allowing his own tears to fall as he wrapped his arms back around his sobbing girlfriend, holding her in his arms tightly as if she would slip from his grasp at any second...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ella Lentini as Beth and Hannah  
> Holland Rodan as Hazel  
> Galadriel Stineman as Ashley  
> Noah Fleiss as Chris  
> Hayden Panettiere as Sam  
> Rami Malek as Josh  
> Jordan Fisher as Matt  
> Brett Dalton as Mike  
> Meaghan Martin as Jess  
> Nichole Bloom as Emily  
> Larry Fessenden as The Stranger/Jack Fiddler
> 
> If anyone likes Supernatural, you'd like that far better than this fanfiction revamp. If you don't like the show, that's fine since the first several chapters are completely original anyways. One of the characters is portrayed by Hayden, by the way, and her boyfriend for one chapter is portrayed by Rami (and there is a sex scene between them that is pretty damn good). Go check that out. So for how the chapter went from pretty awesome with paragraph lengths to very short, kind of cringy paragraphs lengths. I kept some of the old in because I couldn't think of anything new. Sorry about that but it'll get better, promise.


	2. Lonely

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Aftermath of The Prologue.
> 
> A look into the "new" life of Josh (and technically Hazel).

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> LET ME KNOW IF PARAGRAPHS SEEM TO BE MISSING!
> 
> Date Revamped: January 11th-12th, 2018
> 
> Additions to This Version: Added Dialogue, Added Descriptions, Errors Fixed (Some May Had Been Missed), Third Person Instead of First Person (Originally in Sam's, then Hazel's Point of View), One Scene Was Taken Out (But It Will Be In The Remake of the Next Chapter)
> 
> Warnings: Cursing, Original Dialogue, Original Idea, Possibility of Out-of-Character Moments, Kind of Short, Third Person Might Revert Back and Forth Between Past and Present Tense, Sensitive Topic Discussion (Suicide/Self-Harm)
> 
> Additional Author's Note: I must say that I am more content with my remake of this than what I had originally. It is so much more decent than it once was and far less cringy, though still a bit cringy, to be honest. It's fine, though. I regret nothing. Additionally, just a bit of a warning, my original chapters don't have many long paragraphs within them regardless of my revamping because there wasn't too much to add (least, I couldn't think of much to add) so errors were fixed and the wording was also, kind of, fixed too.

        It has been three months since Beth and Hannah Washington disappeared. The police had done everything in their power to find the missing females, but to no avail. No bodies were found, but by this point in time, most believed them to be dead, regardless of if a body was to be found or not. The family of the two were slowly losing hope, especially Josh. Chris and Sam had been heading over to Josh's home very often after the incident; they both needed to make sure he was alright, to make sure he never did something stupid, something that he had been incapable of doing beforehand. That was one of their reasons for going over to his home so much. Apart from just checking up on him often, their second reason for being there was to get his mind off everything because he was their mutual friend. Josh had been doing okay, for the most part. Well, he was doing as okay as he could be after the incident. He wasn't himself anymore, not completely. He wasn't the same without his sisters and without his girlfriend; after Beth and Hannah had gone missing, and after everyone had left the lodge, Hazel had returned home like everyone else and she seemed okay, mostly unaffected by the event from what everyone could tell, but after three weeks, she never left her house again. Josh missed her very much and with her absence, he felt like he had lost her too… Perhaps, like him, she had lost a part of herself that night…

        Chris and Sam had attempted many times to check up on Hazel, but they were never able to come in contact with her physically. It had always been Ashley who'd inform them of her condition, a condition that never seemed to change each time the two came to visit because whenever the two visited, Ashley would simply tell them three things; Hazel was in her bedroom, Hazel wanted to be alone, and Hazel did not want to see anyone. So, after a while, the two of them stopped going over and gave Hazel the space she wanted, deciding to just get information from Ashley over the phone. About a week after that occurred, Ashley informed Chris and Sam that Hazel had stopped talking to her, and that Hazel was becoming very mute-like… They just couldn't believe that she had become like that… Matt was the only other friend who attempted to contact Hazel, just to see if she was okay; she had answered his text once and she never answered the other ones after that, which caused him to worry and he, too, began getting information from Ashley about Hazel's condition.

        For the first few weeks of Beth and Hannah's disappearance, Hazel had been the most enthusiastic (despite having obtained a broken wrist and a concussion) and she often told everyone that the sisters would be found soon. She had still been herself, but there was always sadness in both her eyes and smiles, that being the only thing that made everyone know that she was actually being affected by what happened. She had gone over to Josh's with Chris and Sam everyday for three weeks. She would make him smile, make him laugh, and they would have their usual couple moment here and there. But once that third week was gone, her mood had completely changed for the worst. She remained at home all the time, never leaving her bedroom. From what Chris and Sam heard from Ashley, whenever she went to Hazel's room, Hazel hardly smiled and would often stare blankly at any object within her bedroom, just entirely zoning out into her own little world. Why the family hadn't tried to get her some medical help was unknown.

        Sam was currently driving her vehicle down the dimly lit road, heading towards Josh's house that very night. A lot was on her mind as she drove, but she didn't let it distract her too much, not wanting to become a victim of a car accident. Hannah had been her best friend and she wanted to believe that she knew exactly what Hazel, and Josh, were going through right now, but she didn't know shit. Sure, she had been Hannah's best friend but Hazel and Josh were closer to Hannah, and Beth, than she herself had been. Hell, maybe she couldn't even call herself Hannah's best friend anymore. She hadn't even went after them until it was far too late… Maybe if she hadn't hesitated to follow… Maybe if she had stopped the prank from ever occurring, perhaps none of that mess would've happened… Perhaps then, Beth and Hannah wouldn't be missing right now...

        It wasn't long before she drove up to Josh's home. Another vehicle was parked in the driveway that didn't belong to Josh or his family, indicating that it belonged to Chris. As Sam parked her car and turned off the ignition, she spotted Chris stepping out of his own at last. Perhaps he had just gotten there just seconds before she had? She opened the door and stepped out, closing the door behind her. She strode over to Chris in several long steps. "Did you just get here?" she asked him as she moved to stand right in front of him.

        Chris shook his head slightly. "No." He held up his closed cell-phone, which was within his left hand. "I was talking to Ashley. She called to see how I was doing." Ashley had been doing that quite often since he and Sam stopped visiting; it was very clear that she missed seeing them, especially Chris. As he stared at Sam, he stuffed his cell-phone into his over-sized green coat and, then, stuffed his hands into the pockets of his black pants, shifting ever so lightly on his dark shoed covered feet.

        Sam paid no mind to his wording, her mind still amongst other things. If she had been in a right state of mind that moment, she'd tease him about his crush on Ashley. "I see," she softly responded as she crossed her arms over her chest, her black long-sleeved covered arms brushing up against her white sleeveless hoodie. She felt compelled to ask about Hazel and so, she did just that. "Did she happen to mention how Hazel's doing? Is she getting any better?" She already knew what the answer was going to be for either question but she still had hope that it would change one day. Today wasn't that day, unfortunately.

        Chris let out a loud sigh and he shook his head again, shaking it more than he had done so moments ago. Sam frowned at the motion, knowing that the answer she dreaded was about to come flying out of his mouth and she was beginning to wish she never asked. "She still hasn't been talking to Ash much. She doesn't even talk to their parents. She's just…" Chris paused his sentence, trying to find the correct words to use. "...She's just becoming so much more of a… Well… A mime or a mute, in other words… Maybe a mime wasn't a good example since she doesn't do gestures, from what I'm aware of..." Chris mumbled an apology when Sam gave him a look.

        Sam shifted on her feet, her eyes moving to stare down at her white jeans and her black snow boots. She hesitated to get her words out of her mouth, taking a moment to finally respond to him. "...You don't think that she'll… You know…" She didn't want to say the actual words. Hell, she didn't want to  _think_  of the possibility of it occurring to  _any_  of her friends. She hoped that Hazel wasn't that far gone with her depression or whatever it was that she was dealing with.

        "No," Chris answered quickly, his eyes remaining on Sam. "Hazel wouldn't do that. She'd never try to kill herself, even with severe depression, because that's something she just wouldn't do." He seemed so sure of this, but the problem was that Hazel was no longer herself and who knew what she'd do… She spent so much time alone, it wouldn't be a big surprise if one day she was found dead by Ashley... That was a sight that Chris and Sam both hoped wouldn't be made true at any point in time. They wouldn't be able to bare losing another friend.

        Sam glanced back up towards Chris, her eyes locking with his. "I don't know, Chris. Depression usually tends to lead to suicide, mostly because the person dealing with such emotions usually can't think straight enough to prevent themselves from doing it." She wasn't as sure as he was about the matter.

        "Well, it's not the same for everyone," Chris pointed out. "She won't do it. Besides, doesn't she have medication to keep her depression levels from going overboard or something like that? She won't attempt to do anything to herself." The way he said it, it sounded defensive and it sounded like he was offended that Sam would think that of Hazel ( _A/N:_   _offended that Sam thought Hazel was maybe suicidal, in case you didn't understand_ ). He turned away from Sam, heading towards the building that was Josh's house; the bricked building was large, mansion-like but that was to be expected when you had a friend, like Josh, who came from a reasonably wealthy family. Sam followed close behind Chris, her eyes on the back of his head. The two of them keeping silent, no longer continuing their conversation, they approached the door. They both took notice of the lack of cars in the open garage, noting that Josh's parents weren't home again. Sam was quick to take a detour, manually closing the garage door herself to prevent a possible theft before she followed Chris into the house, the door having been unlocked. Upon entering the house and walking into the slightly fancy living room, the two friends found Josh sitting on the couch with the television on in front of him. However, Josh appeared to be completely uninterested in the program showing on the television, his eyes dull and unfocused as he stared at the screen boredly, attired in gray clothing that fit his emotions. "Hey, man," Chris greeted gently, heading straight to the couch. He took a seat to Josh's left and he gave him an one-armed bro hug, which Josh didn't return. "You doing okay, dude?" He already knew the real answer before he got the fake one, but he still didn't know what he should do to help him out more.

        "Y-Yeah… I'm fine," Josh lied, looking over at Chris. It was clear that he had become sadder since Hazel stopped coming over to see him. They had been coping together in their own way for three weeks and it had been working the best that it could. When Hazel never returned, Josh asked Chris and Sam on multiple occasions about her whereabouts but all they would tell him was that she was okay, which was an almost complete lie. Well, she was still alive but other than that, she wasn't doing too great on her own.

        "That's good," Sam replied, smiling a little at him as she, too, approached the couch. She didn't seem to be aware of Josh's lying like Chris was. She took a seat to Josh's right and placed her left hand over his right one, still smiling a little. "We're here for you, Josh. Always." Friends forever.

        "Thanks," Josh said, half-smiling. Some of his normal mood returned as he wrapped his left arm around Chris and his right arm around Sam. "You two really know how to treat a guy." This happened often, his mood slightly lifting each time the two came over but just as often, his mood would shift back to where it had been beforehand.

        "Absolutely," Chris commented. "And to top the night off, we're going to be watching some horror flicks. We can even try to scare Sam so much that she won't be able to sleep tonight." However, if that were to happen, Sam now knew what would probably occur and could prepare herself mentally, and psychically, for such.

        "Hey, I'm nothing like Ashley. I don't get scared so easily over a little horror flick," Sam told Chris. But just because she didn't scare easily didn't mean she couldn't get terrified and she wasn't looking forward to their schemes of trying to frighten her into never sleeping again. She'd have to sleep with one eye open tonight, too.

        "That's why he said we're going to  _attempt_  to scare you," Josh commented. He was acting like part of his old self but it wasn't enough to keep him out of the gutter. Just because he was a little happy in that moment didn't mean that he was going to remain a little happy for a long period of time ( _A/N: yes, I am keeping this cringy shit in. No, I don't regret this. Yes, I do love all of you_ ).

        "Good luck with that," Sam stated, shaking her head and smiling a little bit at them both. She loved them, they were her friends. It saddened her to know that Josh, and Hazel, were affected so badly because of Beth and Hannah's disappearance. She really hoped that they would get better with time and only time would tell; the two of them could go in either direction, good or bad. As Chris stood up to get a movie for them to watch, Josh looked over at Sam as he removed his arm from around her at last. He opened his mouth but closed it, hesitating to speak. "Yes, Josh?" she asked him, giving him a soft smile. She had a feeling that she knew what he wanted to speak of.

        He opened his mouth again and he spoke slowly. "...How's Hazel? Is she still doing okay…? It's been so long since… Since I've seen her or talked to her… Does she hate me?" Tears began to form in his eyes. He really did feel like he lost Hazel along with his sisters.

        "She doesn't hate you, Josh," Sam replied softly, frowning as tears began forming in her own eyes. She hated seeing him like this and she hated that they kept Hazel's true status from him. "She loves you very much. Just as much as you love her. It's just…" She hesitated before continuing. "With what happened that day… It finally got to her," she revealed slowly. She didn't want to hide the truth from him anymore. It was cruel.

        Josh's eyes widened in fear and worry, expecting the worst news. "W-What do you mean by that?" His voice grew louder, more panicked. "Is she okay?!" He gripped Sam's shoulders tightly as he turned his body towards her on the couch, turning her so that she was facing him completely. "I need to know if she's okay, Sam! Tell me she's okay!" He feared and worried that something had happened to her again.

        Sam answered him honestly, no longer hiding the truth from him. "She's not okay, not exactly." Upon seeing Josh looking like he was finally about to burst into tears, she quickly added on to her statement. "She's alive. She just… She hasn't left her house since the last time she saw you and she doesn't talk much anymore… She's been taking medication for depression so don't worry about her doing, um, something stupid… Chris is convinced that even without the meds, she won't do something like that." She wasn't sure how he'd take the news. She was expecting him to freak out or something. Expecting him to finally cry or to lash out. Anything.

        Josh shook his head a little frantically. "She won't. She won't do that. She told me that when the bad thoughts come, she thinks of me and she strays away from them. She won't do it. She won't." He refused to believe of the possibility that Hazel could commit suicide and leave him forever. He didn't like thinking about it.

        Sam half-smiled. "Have you tried calling or texting her?" She wanted to distract him from the thoughts that she was making him have. She kind of regretted telling him the truth but she was additionally relieved to have told him at last. He was taking it a little better than she had expected, at least.

        "...No," Josh answered after a few seconds. "I thought that… I thought that she'd break up with me if I ever talked to her. I thought that she couldn't stand my mood anymore… I thought she stopped coming because of me…" He had assumed it was something he did that had caused Hazel to not return.

        Sam shook her head. "No. Her depression took a little while to hit and when it did, she remained home to deal with it in her own terms." She tilted her head slightly and smiled sadly. "How about you try texting her? I'm sure she misses you and I doubt she won't answer." She was hoping that maybe Hazel would finally start responding to someone again if it was Josh who spoke to her. Maybe that was all that Hazel needed all this time. Maybe Hazel had just needed Josh to be able to cope still but she had been so overwhelmed that she just didn't want to do anything anymore and she just needed the assistance of Josh that she silently hoped she would get. This was all just wishful thinking on Sam's part.

        Josh nodded hesitantly after a minute. "Okay. I'll… I'll do that." He got off the couch and started heading out of the room. "My phone's in my room." With that, he was out of sight after rushing past Chris, in a hurry to speak to Hazel after so long without her. Hopefully, she'd respond back.

        "Where's he going? I've never seen him run that fast since I've met him," Chris commented, having gotten the movie ready and everything. He had even left the room to make popcorn, a bowl full of it currently in his hands. Sam and Josh must had been talking for a while for that to have happened.

        "He's going to text Hazel," Sam quickly revealed, a small smile on her face. "I think that maybe, just maybe he can get her to talk again. Love conquers all, right?" She wasn't entirely certain that Hazel would reply back to Josh but she sure as hell was hoping and silently praying that she would.

        Chris had an unsure look on his face, not entirely liking what Sam had just told him. "Ummm... You sure he should do that? What if she doesn't text him back? Do you realize how much that would hurt him if she just completely ignores him? He'll go nuts. It was one thing with her no longer coming around but for her not to reply to his text when he finally sends her one? That would definitely crush him."

        Sam disagreed with him, putting her hope in front of her doubts. "This is Hazel we're talking about. Yeah, she doesn't want anyone around and yes, she doesn't talk much anymore but once Josh texts her, she'll text him back immediately. She loves him and no amount of depression is going to get rid of that love they share. Love is strong, Chris. It, quite frankly, conquers all, so everyone says." She changed the topic, not wanting to get into the whole Hazel-maybe-ignoring-Josh thing. "You should worry about your feelings with Ashley."

        Chris began to blush, seemingly forgetting about the conversation topic they just had. "Shut up. I don't want to talk about that."

        Sam smiled at him as she rolled her eyes playfully. "Okay. Well, if you don't get with Ashley soon, I'm going to tease you for the rest of our lives, til death do us part."

        Chris ignored her, handing her the bowl of popcorn. "Josh will be back soon. I'm going to get some beer...or something." He turned away from her and he headed back towards the kitchen, wanting to avoid talking to Sam further about Ashley. Sam shook her head as she let out a small laugh...


	3. Together

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A better look into Hazel's "new" life. Following this, a reunion occurs.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Date Revamped: January 12th-13th, 2018
> 
> Additions to This Version: Added Dialogue, Added Descriptions, Errors Fixed (Some Might Remain), Third Person Instead of First Person (Originally Being In Hazel's, then Ashley's Point of View)
> 
> Warnings: Cursing, Original Dialogue, Original Idea, Possibility of Out-of-Character Moments, Third Person Going Back and Forth Between Past and Present Tense, Sensitive Topic Again (Suicide/Half-Harm), Depression (Prob Should've Put That In Last Warning Also But Oh Well)
> 
> Additional A/N: After the fixing up of these original chapters, it may be a while before the scripted chapters get revamped. As I've stated (I think), I have other fanfics to worry about and I additionally have my book to edit up so it is publishable. That'll be on Amazon, eventually, or whatever site I'm using. Just a little more time, hopefully, and I'll be considered a published author of sorts. Fingers crossed that I succeed in getting that done sometime these next few months.

        Hazel was laying on her bed, frowning as she stared up at her ceiling. She was thinking about herself, wondering if she was a horrible human being. She should had continued seeing her boyfriend, who was going through the same shit as her, but nope, she felt like a complete moron for just spending over two months, or so, in her bedroom, away from everyone just because she had let her anger and depression win. She felt like she could, or would, go insane from all that lack of communication but she just couldn't help how she felt. It didn't change the fact that she regretted her actions, though. Well, she didn't regret  _all_ of her actions. Just a few of them.

        She didn't talk to Ashley anymore. She had good reason to do so, in her opinion. It wasn't because of her depression but it was because of her anger; Ashley had been a part of the prank that made Hazel (and Josh) lose Beth and Hannah. Ashley had explained to Hazel that she had only been watching the prank take place, but the fact that Ashley didn't go after Hannah like a real friend would, like Beth and Hazel had, that pissed Hazel off big time. Although, Hazel didn't exactly blame Ashley for whatever else that happened to Beth and Hannah because the two, plus Hazel herself, had been within the woods away from the others. Hazel didn't blame Ashley at all for the fact that she herself (Hazel) had gotten hurt. Oh, how Hazel hoped that her best-friends would be found alive and unharmed...

        She had been rather depressed for the past few months. She had to take some medication for it because the doctors, and her family, had feared that she'd kill herself. Hazel didn't believe herself to be that depressed, though. Although she was extremely depressed because of what had occurred, she wasn't going to just kill herself and leave behind her sister, her boyfriend, and her one male friend that she still had (that she still considered a friend)... She especially couldn't just leave Josh to mourn her despite that she hadn't seen him in a long time. She had been letting her depression win whenever she wasn't taking her medication, always avoiding texting anyone or avoiding leaving the house (though, she did that even while on the medication and she was surprised that she wasn't in therapy or something by this point, though she didn't want that to happen so not being involved in that was great). She didn't want to do that anymore, avoiding everyone, but she still didn't wish to speak with anyone, with the exception of Josh; she really wanted to speak with Josh again.

        She was very unsure of what to do. Should she go to Josh's home and surprise him? Should she call him or someone? Should she text him or someone? She didn't know what the hell to do anymore, didn't know what exactly was going on in her head anymore. She was extremely confused. Thankfully, she had taken her medication for her anxiety and depression this time around so she was able to think a little more clearly than usual; it was probably the only reason why she wanted to socialize again. However, despite taking antidepressants, she was still very depressed but she considered that to be normal (or the pills weren't doing shit). She sniffled as a few tears fell from her eyes. She wanted, no, she  _needed_ to talk to Josh again. He knew exactly what she was going through and he was most likely going through it worse. She immediately felt bad as she thought about how much time she spent away from him. She felt like a horrible girlfriend. She felt stupid for keeping herself away from him when they both needed each other.

        Her phone began to vibrate on her dresser, causing Hazel to jump out of startlement. She got off of her bed and approached her dresser, picking her phone up. Unlocking it, she saw that she had gotten a text from Josh and she clicked on it to see the full message. " _ **Hey. Uh, you okay? I've been worrying about you non-stop and the lack of communication between us is killing me. I bet it's killing you, too. Please answer. There's no point in avoiding me anymore when we need each other.**_ "

        Hazel smiled a little bit, wiping the fear tears she had shed. She was happy to hear that he had been worrying about her, just as much as she had been worrying about him. She realized even more that her lack of contact with him was completely pointless and stupid. She had forgotten that Josh had his own mental issues, different ones than what she had. He could had done something crazy and it would had been her fault. 'Least, she felt like it would had been her fault. She quickly texted him back. " _ **I've been ugh. I've been worrying about you as well. I am so fucking sorry! DX I was only thinking about my own depression and wanted to be away from everyone. I should've kept seeing you, at least, because we're going through the same thing, just in different ways. We both have a bit of a problem with our heads, no? And yeah, it has been killing me, too. I just didn't want to admit it until now.**_ "

        Hazel held her phone tightly in her hand. The last part she texted was kind of true, to an extent. The lack of social interaction was killing her or, at least, it was driving her a little insane. She had an idea on who she'd talk to again. She'd definitely talk to Josh more and mostly likely just Chris as well but if she didn't have a choice, she'd talk to whomever. She would definitely talk to Chris again, though, because he had been out cold from being drunk off his ass like Josh so she didn't have a reason to ignore him at all but she couldn't help that her anger had been taken out on everyone because she couldn't control that emotion very well. She waited patiently for Josh to text back and when he did, she frowned at what it said. " _ **Least you are admitting it now. Why aren't you talking to your sister? Sam only just told me this like five minutes ago.**_ "

        She texted him back honestly. " _ **She was a part of the prank, even if she was just watching. She didn't go after Hannah like Beth and I did. None of them did so they weren't true friends of your sisters. At least that is what I think. I don't know what you think.**_ " She sighed after sending the text. She was angry at all of them. Well, at everyone involved in the prank. But she suppose it was just a prank that went horribly wrong. They hadn't thought that Hannah would run away or that she and Beth would go missing while Hazel herself had gotten hurt. Additionally, and on a side note, she didn't like the idea of Sam being at Josh's home.

        She stared at the new text message she received from Josh. " _ **Do you hate them?**_ "

        Hazel shook her head, for some reason, as she texted him back. " _ **Not exactly. I just am angry at all of them for doing the prank in the first place. I really wish they never did it...**_ "

        " _ **Yeah. I am still a little angry at them, too,**_ " Josh replied. Hazel was about to reply when he sent another text message. " _ **Can you come over? Chris and Sam are here. Even if you are angry with Sam still, you should still say hi to her or something.**_ " He didn't mention Chris 'cause he was aware that he wasn't involved as well, the two of them having gotten drunk of their asses together. And while he was aware that Sam hadn't been involved too, she didn't go after Hannah like Beth and Hazel did.

        Hazel let out a sigh but refused to say no to Josh. " _ **Okay.**_ " She turned off her phone and placed it in her blue jean back-pocket. She went over to the mirror and looked at her attire. The jeans were good but she was also without shoes and wearing a black tank-top. She quickly threw on some dark colored shoes and grabbed a denim blue jacket from her closet before she headed out of her bedroom. She went straight down the hall and towards the front door. She was hoping to avoid Ashley.

        However, she couldn't avoid her older sister at all. "Hazel?" she heard Ashley call her name as she heard her sister exiting out of the nearby kitchen. Hazel must had been moving too loudly. "You okay?" Ashley asked as she noticed that Hazel had left her bedroom. Hazel slowly looked towards her and nodded hesitantly. "Are you going outside?" Ashley asked. Hazel lifted her hand and lightly shook it side to side, meaning sort of. "Uh, are you going to see someone?" Ashley asked. Hazel grinned and nodded immediately. Ashley blinked in surprise. "Who?" This was a surprise to her.

        Hazel hesitated to speak up. She really didn't want to talk to her. She was still angry with her. She was a stubborn bitch at times. But she spoke softly after a moment. She was barely talking to her anyways so a word at a time wouldn't be too bad, she thought. "...Josh." And perhaps, as time went on, she'd talk out loud around people more.

        Ashley half-smiled at her. "I see... Do you want me to drive you?" Hazel nodded quickly, not wanting to drive there herself (even though she had been planning on doing such). She didn't mind pretending that she was becoming better; she just wanted to see Josh. Ashley smiled a little bit more and she nodded to Hazel in return. "Okay. Great. We'll go there together, then. I'll just get my coat and keys." Ashley walked away, heading into the living room. She was wearing black jeans, a nerdy colorful t-shirt, and brown boots. She picked up her beige small jacket from the couch and put it on before she returned to Hazel with some keys in her hand.

        While Ashley was getting her coat, Hazel jumped up and down where she stood. She was so very extremely excited to be seeing Josh again after so long. Chris, too, and Sam somewhat. Actually, forget Sam; she didn't give a shit about Sam anymore, only Chris and Josh. Sam could had went to find Hannah but she didn't and that was worse than if she had been a part of the prank, which she hadn't been but it still pissed Hazel off that Sam didn't try to find Hannah with her and Beth. But Hazel felt that her anger would go away over time and that she wouldn't hold a grudge for long but while she did, Sam could go fuck herself.

        As soon as Ashley had returned to where Hazel was standing, Hazel dragged her out of the house and towards the car. Ashley started laughing a little. "Someone's eager to see her boyfriend," she remarked. Hazel nodded eagerly and smiled widely. She was having all kind of mood swings. She had been depressed for, like, two-to-three months in total and that day, she had been angry, annoyed, happy, sad, and upset for most the day but currently, she was just plain excited, happy, and pissed all at the same time, the first two more so than the last one. Holy shit, she felt like she was such a complex being of strangeness. "I'm glad that you're finally leaving the house," Ashley stated. "Josh will be so happy to see you." Hazel nodded in agreement. She knew he was going to be happy and she was happy herself, beyond happy right that moment. The two of them got into the vehicle and were soon on their way to Josh's place. Hazel just couldn't wait to see Josh again...

        The ride to Josh's was very silent, mainly awkwardly silent. No music played and neither Ashley nor Hazel talked, obviously. But eventually, the long ride was over with and they were at their location. The two of them exited the car and they headed to the front door. Hazel was the one to knock on the front door and as soon as Josh opened it, she jumped on him, giving him the biggest hug she had ever given him. "Whoa!" Josh exclaimed. He chuckled a tad and there was no hint of sadness anywhere visible on his being; Hazel was distracting him from what happened three months ago. "I missed you, too, babe." Josh wrapped his arms around her and she smiled, laying her head on his shoulder. Ashley walked past them and they both could only assume that she was walking over to Chris and Sam.

        "Hazel," Sam said. Hazel and Josh pulled out of their hug almost completely, Josh holding Hazel's right hand with his left. The two looked towards where their friends stood, their eyes connecting with Sam's. She came over to the two of them and she wrapped her arms around Hazel, Hazel returning the hug with just her left arm. "So, uh," Sam continued as she removed her arms from Hazel. She stared at her hopefully. "Have you been okay lately?" she asked. Hazel nodded, not wishing to speak with her. Earlier, when she had spoken to Ashley, that was just because she had felt like it; she didn't feel like speaking to anyone but Josh right now, though. Sam frowned as she quickly noticed that Hazel didn't respond verbally. "Still not talking, huh...?"

        "She said only one word earlier to me before we came here," Ashley informed everyone. Everyone but Hazel looked in her direction and she began to clarify her words. "I had asked her if she was leaving, she nodded, I asked where, and then, she said 'Josh' after hesitating slightly. It surprised me a little since I didn't expect her to answer me. Well, with words."

        Josh smiled as he learned that his name was the only thing she had spoken. He was a bit sad that she hadn't spoken much but he was still very happy that it had been his name that she had said. "She's very unpredictable," he remarked in response to what Ashley had said, kissing Hazel's forehead. He didn't plan on letting go of her. He didn't want her to leave and risk the chance of her not coming back.

        Chris grinned as he watched Josh being all lovey dovey with Hazel again. He sure had missed that, despite that he had hated seeing them all couple-y before Hazel had changed for the worse. "So, Hazel, you up for watching a horror flick with us? We were just about to start it when you showed up." Hazel nodded frantically, smiling widely. She absolutely loved horror films. Additionally, she was happy that her silence was being respected since she was only being asked yes or no questions. She was glad they weren't going to attempt to make her talk because she most likely would but out of being pissed off than being persuaded.

        Josh chuckled. "That's my girl." She seemed to be slowly getting back to how she always acted. She just needed to start talking again, more often than not.

        Sam looked towards Ashley. "What about you, Ashley?" she asked. "Wanna stay behind and watch the movie with us? Pretty please?"

        Ashley looked around at everyone, looking anxious. "You guys know that I hate horror films." She was scared to death of them, no matter the film. She didn't care if it wasn't actually scary or not, it would still most likely scare the shit out of her pants.

        "You'll have Chris," Sam stated, trying to persuade her into remaining there with them. "He'll hold you close whenever you get scared," she teased. Both Ashley and Chris blushed. Although, neither of them noticed that the other was blushing, keeping their mutual feelings for each other oblivious to them both.

        Ashley hesitated to answer. "...Only one movie and that's it." She was only doing it because of Hazel. Because of Hazel acting slightly like she use to. That was the only reason why. She wasn't staying for Chris or anything...

        "Great," Chris commented, smiling a little as he continued blushing for a bit. How they could not notice their mutual feelings was beyond everyone. Just how could they not notice? How could they not tell? Eventually, hopefully, the two of them will finally realize that they are meant to be and they'll start dating. But it could be months before that occurred, years even. As Sam, Hazel, and Josh walked towards the large couch, moving towards where Ashley and Chris stood, Chris gave Hazel a quick hug. He was just a big o' teddy bear sometimes in the mind of Hazel and that was why she had became good friends with him in the first place.

        The five of them watched their little horror film, Ashley being the only one to hide her face throughout most of it. She was ready to get up and run away, screaming her head off as she went and she planned to blame all of them for it because it was their fault for making her watch something she didn't want to watch. Well, they hadn't actually made her do anything but still, she was going to blame them! She didn't even know the name of the film, not caring about it at all. All she cared about was the right arm and shoulder of Chris, her holding onto his arm and hiding her face in his shoulder. She just couldn't look at the screen for a second without something bad happening in the movie. What the hell were they even watching that was nearly one-hundred percent terrifying? "How much longer is this movie?" Ashley asked, wishing for it to be over with so she could leave. She was terrified out of her mind, even though she wasn't actually watching it but just listening to the horrifying sounds of people dying and people screaming. She was going to have many, many nightmares tonight.

        "It's almost over," Chris informed her, smiling to himself.

        "You're not lying to me, are you?" she asked him, feeling tempted to look towards the screen. She didn't hear anymore sounds of people dying and screaming but it could be a trick. You never know what a movie is going to throw at you until it throws it at you.

        "I would never lie to you, Ash," he stated. Ashley smiled into his shoulder. She was happy and she took a sneak peek, daring herself to look at the screen and she realized that he was correct because she saw police, sunlight, and survivors from the attack that she missed. At least, she was assuming it was the end. Before long, the credits began to appear on the screen and Ashley let out a sigh of relief, releasing her hold on Chris.

        "The movie wasn't even that scary," Sam remarked, rolling her eyes as she smiled to herself.

        "To you, sure. But to me, it was the scariest thing I've ever seen and I am never agreeing to something like this ever again," Ashley stated. She was not going to sacrifice her sanity, again, for the sake of making her friends happy. Never again. Nope. So not worth it. Not even if Chris were to say that they could make out afterwards, she would still not watch another scary movie with them.

        "It makes sense for you to think that. You hate these kinds of films," Sam pointed out. "I'm surprised you didn't take off running the second it started." Hazel giggled in response to this comment but she didn't say a word. Sam crackled a smile as she looked towards Hazel and Josh.

        Ashley looked towards Hazel as she yawned. "I suppose I should be heading back home now. Hazel, are you ready to leave?" Hazel shook her head in response and she kept her arms around Josh, tightening her grasp. Ashley smiled and shook her head, her gaze turning towards Josh. "Josh, I don't think she wants to leave."

        Josh smiled as he laid his head on Hazel's, wrapping both of his arms around her in return. "That's great news because I wasn't going to allow her to leave. I was going to make her my prisoner but it seems she consents with wishing to remain here."

        Ashley nodded. "She can stay if she wants to. I can't stop her from being with her lover." She laughed a bit when Hazel and Josh blushed. She stood up from the couch and stretched a bit. "I guess I'll be seeing you guys whenever." She was about to make a move to leave when Chris stood up next.

        "What? No hug goodbye for the man that protected you from the oh-so-scary movie?" Chris questioned. Ashley smiled a little, a hint of blush in her cheeks and she gave him a hug as he requested. "Bye, Ash."

        "Bye, Chris," Ashley said back to him as she pulled from the hug. She walked past him and towards where the front door was located. "Bye, Sam. Bye, Josh. Bye, lovely little sister." She stopped her walking and looked towards the two lovebirds. "No funny business when Chris and Sam leave. I mean it. You both better behave." She looked away and continued her walking, reaching the front door.

        "We'll do what we wish!" Josh yelled to her as she headed out of the house. Ashley just shook her head and smiled to herself as she headed towards her car.

        About thirty minutes later of everyone but Hazel talking, Chris and Sam decided to call it a night. As soon as the two of them were out of the house and Hazel was aware that they weren't hanging outside the front door to hear what would occur upon their departure, she began to speak nonchalantly like she had been speaking the entire time. "It's about time those two left." She let out a giggle and she smiled brightly when Josh blinked in surprise from her suddenly speaking. "So, what shall we do while we have all of this alone time, hmm?"

        Josh shrugged as he quickly recovered from his surprise. "I don't know. Why weren't you talking?" He was staring at her curiously now. "I was expecting you to say, at least, something to one of us while everyone was here."

        "Well, I don't really know," Hazel admitted. "There's a whole mixture of reasons. I didn't feel like talking, I am so use to not talking that I didn't talk, and I was still kind of mad at Ashley but mostly mad at Sam for what had happened and I just ended up letting that anger out on everyone by not talking to any of you because that is apparently the worst thing I can do and think of." She knew that she had become a bit screwed up in the head. She didn't know what the hell she wanted anymore. She wanted to speak with her friends but additionally, she had just wanted to talk to those that hadn't been involved in the accident that occurred. And then there were the urges she had where she just wanted to socialize with Josh and only Josh. She just really didn't know what the hell she wanted anymore. Her mind was all fucked up now, in her opinion. "I say I'm not use to talking but I just did a bit of talking just now."

        Josh chuckled a bit. "Yeah, that was a mouthful. I barely understood it." He smiled a little. "You're a very strange woman. Sometimes."

        Hazel smirked at him. "Excuse you but I'm not all woman yet. By age and something else. So, false flattery will get you nowhere, Sir." She slightly shoved him.

        Josh chuckled again and flirted in response. "Well, we could take care of one of those things right now." Hazel blushed a lot as she shoved him again, pouting. "I'm joking, babe. I wouldn't do something like that to you, force you into giving up  _that._  I want that moment to be... Well, special. Hopefully."

        Hazel smiled and leaned forward, kissing him on the cheek. "I know, you pervert." She laid her head on his shoulder and slowly, she began to frown as Beth and Hannah began to cross her mind so suddenly. She just couldn't seem to keep them out of her mind for long.

        Josh immediately knew who Hazel was thinking about and he let out a sigh. "...Do you think that they'll be found?"

        Hazel shrugged slightly after a moment and she answered him. "I don't know anymore. I just hope that they are alive. But... It's been three months, Josh, and my hope is running thin... I don't think that they'll be found alive at this point, if they are even found at all." She was becoming less hopeful of her best-friends being found breathing. She was beginning to dread them being found dead and without organs or something.

        "...Yeah..." Josh answered slowly. He removed his hands from around her and he leaned back onto the couch. He was frowning and he had closed his eyes. Hazel looked towards him, her head no longer against his shoulder, and she frowned when she saw that he was crying silently a little bit. She had accidentally caused him to become upset again. She should had kept her mouth shut. She felt horrible.

        She hesitated to speak for a moment. "...Hey, we're in this together, okay? You cry, I cry. You smile, I smile. You jump off a bridge, I'll get a boat and save your dumb ass from drowning." Josh cracked a smile at the last part, shaking his head slightly. Hazel half-smiled. "Point is that we both lost two people that are... That were dear to us. We're both in pain and we're upset and we're just super pissed at the entire planet. But we'll get through all that. Together."

        Josh reopened his eyes and looked at her, still kind of smiling as tears went down his cheeks. "Yeah," he agreed.

        Hazel clapped her hands together, letting out a little cheer. "Yay! I have a boyfriend who is on my side for everything!"

        Josh laughed, shaking his head at her. "You can be really random sometimes, you know that?"

        Hazel stuck her tongue out at him for a moment before she answered him. "Actually, yes. Very much so. I do know this. I've already embraced my random awesomeness and my everything-else-I-am-ness. You should do that, too."

        Josh smiled at her before his smile faltered. "So, uh, did anyone text you these past three months? Other than myself?"

        Hazel frowned and instantly apologized. "I'm sorry about not texting you all those other times. I was kind of off my meds and I had just wanted to be alone in my thoughts and depression." She thought about her answer before continuing. "But yeah, others did text me. Chris and Sam texted me a lot, but not as much after they stopped visiting my house. Matt texted me a lot, too. Mike texted once and it was short as shit, saying he was sorry and that's it. And lastly, Emily and Jessica can go fuck themselves. They didn't text me at all and they were the main culprits of that damn prank. I doubt they even feel bad for what happened but they could've apologized regardless." Josh nodded, crossed his arms, and avoided looking her in the eye. "What is it?" Hazel asked.

        "Matt likes you," he responded immediately. "He likes you a lot. I'm not surprised since you've very damn beautiful and sexy, but I still don't like it."

        Hazel laughed at him and kissed his cheek again. "I haven't seen or talked to Matt in three months, Josh. By the time I ever feel like talking to him, he'll probably have a girlfriend and he'll be long over that little crush of his. Besides, he was only my good male friend. Considering that I haven't spoken to him in so long, I think that friendship status has gone down. So, you had and have nothing to worry about."

        "Good." Josh pulled her into his arms again and they remained silent for the rest of the night, just staying within each other's arms. As they both began to fall asleep, it became certain to them both that they would never, ever let something tear them apart again. Nothing would ever separate them...


	4. Needs

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hazel and Josh interactions.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Date Revamped: January 13th, 2018 (Merry Quite-After Christmas, Everyone! I Got A Lot of Supernatural Related Things and I Am Speaking of the TV Series)
> 
> Additions to This Version: Added Dialogue, Added Descriptions, Errors Fixed (Some Might Remain), Third Person Instead of First Person (Originally In Hazel's Point of View, Then Chris' Point of View, then Hazel's Point of View, and lastly, Josh's Point of View), Scene Between Ashley and Chris Has Been Removed Because It's Not Really Necessary For The Fanfiction or It's Plot
> 
> Warnings: Cursing, Original Dialogue, Original Idea, Possibility of Out-of-Character Moments, Sexual Content (That Probably Isn't Well Created, But I Used All My Awesome Sex Writing For A Scene In Chapter One of My Supernatural Fanfiction), Past and Present Tense in Used (Unfortunately), Third Person
> 
> Additional A/N: This is the third time I've written a sexual intercourse scene where a character was played by Rami Malek, the first being the first time I wrote this chapter and the second being a chapter in my Supernatural fanfic (the female he had intercourse with was one of my original characters, who is portrayed by Hayden Panettiere xD). Third time would be this remake of the first one I mentioned. Hope you enjoy it.

        Six months had gone by since Beth and Hannah Washington had disappeared; half of a year had flew by and the two females had yet been found, alive or dead. It was becoming more likely that they were both deceased after so much time having passed by and the only person Hazel could really blame for that were the police being faulty with their job. Although, Hazel was putting much of the blame on those whom had caused the two to become missing in the first place, even if it was unintentional. Hazel found it entirely unfair how she had been the only one to be found, sometimes dreading that she hadn't stayed by the two of them. However, she was a bit thankful that she hadn't ended up sticking by their side because then, she would likely be dead as well and Josh would've became more worse off with his problems than he currently was; Josh had his moments for the past three months since he saw his lover again and he had attempted to stop his meds, but he was often convinced by Hazel to continue taking them, even though he often went back to getting angry and wanting to stop taking his medication. And for those past three months, Hazel had basically been living with him, with the permission of her family and his family, but half of the reason was because they (the family) felt that the two would revert back to their old ways if given time to cope with one another.

        Hazel had been confused with her emotions those first few months, but with the three months that had gone by, she had become a bit less confused with what she was feeling. Well, she was less confused enough to be convinced to talk to a few friends of hers again. However, she only did that through texting but with the exception of speaking to Chris whenever she saw him when he came over to Josh's. Sam would be with him most of the time, so Hazel would wait until Sam was elsewhere before she would talk to Chris because she didn't want to speak to Sam verbally. Another friend of hers that she started speaking to, only via texting however, was Matt and he had been very happy, and extremely surprised, when Hazel had texted him and the two of them had avoided bringing up what had happened, talking about normal things over the phone when they called each other (yeah, she called him, too, and not just sent texts; he was also an exception). Josh would often check to see who Hazel was texting since she'd get so into her conversations over the phone and whenever he'd see she was talking to Matt, he'd take her phone from her and start kissing her until she forgot that she had been texting someone to begin with; jealousy is a wonderful thing sometimes.

        Other than her confusion going down just a tad bit, Hazel had gotten a bit more mental. She had started to talk to herself a whole lot, more out loud instead of just thinking to herself, though that wasn't exactly abnormal because a lot of people talked to themselves anyways. She still believed herself to have become more mental, though. She felt like she was mentally unstable and that she could explode from angry or insanity at any given moment, and she was probably right about that. Oddly enough, she was looking forward to that but it was likely because she wasn't in the right state of mind anymore. On another note, she had stopped taking her anxiety medication on multiple accounts and even she knew that it was stupid to do but she had done it anyways. So she'd be very anxious but that wasn't as big of a deal as her losing her mind. She might need to take medication for her sanity, if there even was something of the sort.

        Hazel and Josh hadn't been doing very great those past three months, but they could had ended up way worse if they hadn't started helping each other cope as a team, as boyfriend and girlfriend. Although, they both had a couple moments that weren't pleasant, such as lots of arguing over stupid crap but Hazel blamed herself for that because she had stopped taking her meds, which made her not only super anxious all the time but additionally made her more paranoid, somehow, about things. Josh was worried about her, thinking she'd go insane, and he had gotten mad when she told him about her wanting to permanently stop her medication taking but he'd convince her not to, only for the conversation to be repeated on multiple occasions whenever Hazel brought up stopping her meds; it was a reverse situation from when she kept telling Josh to continue his meds.

        Hazel is waiting inside of Josh's vehicle, waiting for Josh's session with his therapist to be over with. He had been seeing Dr. Hill since before the events that had occurred months ago but his visits to him had become more frequent than usual. Hazel, on the other hand, refused to see a therapist about her problems because she didn't believe they'd do much to help her and she had her own way of coping, liking how she was doing on her own without professional help (even though she was pretty sure that she'd go insane eventually regardless). Hazel knew that she wasn't one-hundred percent the same but she also knew that she was not one-hundred percent different and she was perfectly fine with that, at least. Only thing she wasn't okay with was the fact that she was talking to herself in her head like she'd get an answer back, occasionally doing that out loud as well. Suddenly, the driver's door opened up and Hazel jumped, the living shit getting scared out of her since she was so deep in thought. She looked over to see Josh getting into the driver's seat, listening to him slam the door shut as he leaned back in his seat, looking very frustrated. "You okay?" she asked him. Josh didn't answer her right away and it didn't seem like he was going to after a moment passed, so Hazel spoke up more. "I'm totally fine, by the way. You didn't scare me that badly when you came out of absolutely fucking nowhere, you Slenderman wannabe."

        Josh looked over at her. "I scared you? Sorry," he apologized. "And, uh, I'm fine. It's just..." He looked away from her, shaking his head slightly. "Too many questions to answer. Ones that I really didn't want to answer." He was starting to dread having to come see Dr. Hill. The therapy didn't seem to be helping him one bit. Spending time with Hazel, sometimes with friends, that is what seemed to be helping him stay in touch with reality. On a side note, the questions he didn't want to answer were only part of his frustration. Perhaps just a very small portion of his frustration was because of those questions, actually.

        Hazel hummed as she stared at Josh. "You are a very bad liar." She smiled at him as he looked at her. "What's the  _real_ , real reason for your frustration? I mean, I'm sure those questions are part of it, but I think that maybe something else is the main problem."

        Josh half-smiled as he stared at her. "Dr. Hill wants to meet the woman of my dreams, a.k.a. you, in our next session together. Also, I'm not a bad liar, I'm just a bad liar around  _you_." Hazel was his weakness and his strength. He loved her very much and could never not tell her everything on his mind.

        "Why does he want to meet me?" Hazel asked him, curious.

        Josh blushed a bit as he looked away from her slightly. "I may or may not had finally told him about you and that you had almost... That you nearly ended up like my sisters. He was surprised to hear it, but it didn't take him too long to start asking me to bring you inside next time."

        Hazel smiled again. She kind of liked the idea but she mostly hated it because she didn't want to be a part of anything dealing with therapy. "That's nice. So, what else did you tell him about me, other than that?" she asked, biting her lip as she stared at him. She was hoping he spoke good things about her.

        Josh blushed more. "Well," he started before clearing his throat when his voice slightly cracked. He stared at her again. "I told him the truth. You're beautiful and you're helping me get through everything while I'm returning the favor for you. He thinks you should consider therapy but I, uh, I quickly lied for you, told him that you were seeing a therapist like me."

        Hazel nodded, happy to hear that. "Anything else?"

        A mischievous smile grew on his face and Hazel stared at him with an eyebrow raised. "Yeah," Josh stated. "I told him that you have a really hot bod and that we bang every damn day, until dawn." Hazel started laughing and he smiled at her. "I'm serious. I told him exactly that."

        Hazel rolled her eyes playfully. "Sure. You totally did that." She shook her head at him and leaned forward, placing her lips against his in a small sweet kiss. "I love you," she muttered after pulling away from him.

        Josh continued to smile at her, happily this time instead of mischievously as his eyes lit up. "Hey, I'm suppose to say it first," he falsely complained. "I love you, too." He returned her sweet kiss before he started placing his seat-belt on. Hazel leaned back in her seat and awaited for him to start driving back to his home, a smile on her face as she stared out of the window...

        Later that day, Hazel and Josh were hanging out within the living room. The two of them hadn't done much, except watch a movie and they additionally had a few short chats about random things. Hazel could easily tell that the two of them were beginning to enter one of their moods again, their mood in which they'd be depressed about what had happened to Beth and Hannah. Sometimes, the mood would last a few minutes and other times, it would last about a hour or two, sometimes longer. It wasn't too bad, but it wasn't pleasant either; it wasn't like they were going to start getting suicidal thoughts and try to harm themselves, they weren't that kind of sad. Normally, whenever that occurred, the two of them would just cuddle and wait for the mood to pass without speaking a word or they'd talk about it to make it go away quicker. However, this time around, Hazel had a better idea for making the mood pass and she hoped that Josh would be up for it.

        "Josh," Hazel began. "That sad feeling is coming back to you, too, isn't it?" she asked. Josh sighed and nodded, rubbing his head as he remained sitting beside Hazel on the couch. "Let's... Let's do something different this time," she added on softly, staring at him nervously.

        He looked at her, curious as to what she had in mind. "Like...?"

        Hazel stood up and she grabbed his hand, pulling him off of the couch. He stared at her questionably, additionally confused by her actions. "Come on," she whispered to him. She headed to Josh's bedroom at a slow pace, her sad mood beginning to take effect and she pulled Josh along with her gently. When they finally reached the door to Josh's bedroom, Hazel opened it and they headed inside. She closed the door behind them and she turned to face Josh slowly, still holding onto his hand.

        "Hazel..." Josh said slowly, hesitating. He was biting his lip, looking uncertain of what was going to happen. Well, he knew what Hazel had in mind but he didn't know what the result of the action would be. He didn't know if things would get awkward and worse or if the bond between them would get stronger. Hazel was all he had left and he certainly didn't want bad first time sex to be the cause of him losing her. That definitely would be pathetic.

        "We both need this, Josh," Hazel assured him, blush appearing in her cheeks just a tad bit. "I-It'll make the sadness go away for a little while and..." She bit her lip as she hesitated for a moment, more blush appearing in her cheeks. "A-And I've always, you know, wanted to take our relationship to the next step... I-If you want to, that is... We don't have to." She was mumbling, or rambling maybe, at this point. She was nervous and she was at the beginning of getting into one of her little depression moods so she wanted this while she was still herself and willing. She didn't think there would be another opportunity for them to do something like this without awkwardness setting in. This right now, she didn't consider it awkward but she considered it to be a shy, anxious moment definitely.

        Josh hesitated to speak for a moment as he stared at her. As time slowly passed, Hazel was beginning to think that he wasn't going to say anything and she was close to regretting her reveal when he finally responded. "O-Of course I want to. I just..." He hesitated again, staring at her still. "Are you sure?" he asked after a moment. "I don't want you regretting anything..." Hazel was the virgin here, after all. He wanted to know if she really wanted this to happen.

        "I won't regret this, Josh," Hazel stated honestly. She half-smiled at him as she moved to be closer to him. She looked down at her feet, looking away from his face. "I guess we should just go slow...and then, we can just let our emotions takeover or whatever... See where it goes from there..." She rubbed the back of her neck nervously as she continued looking at her feet. She was really, really nervous about this. This would be her first time having sex with someone. She was aware that Josh had been with other girls before her but he wasn't that experienced since he only went all the way with one of the several other girls he ever had been with. Hazel wasn't entirely happy about that but she was happy enough to know that he only did the deed with one chick and not many chicks like so many guys have done. It truly was a rarity for there to be any male virgins, or female virgins, nowadays ( _A/N: I'm proud to be a virgin still)_.

        Josh nodded slightly and he placed his free hand underneath Hazel's chin, making her look up at him as he lifted her chin upwards. He slowly, and hesitatingly, removed his other hand from Hazel's grasp and he placed both of his hands against Hazel's cheeks. He leaned towards her as he closed his eyes and Hazel closed her eyes in response, leaning towards Josh. Lips connecting with one another, the two began to kiss each other at a slow pace, being both patient and hesitate with each other. It took several minutes but things began to heat up between them. They began to allow their emotions to consume them, their emotions of love, lust, and need as they both simultaneously forgot about their sadness and worries. The two of them began to kiss one another more fiercely and things really, really began to pick up. Josh's hands roamed Hazel's body before he picked her up and carried her to his bed, their kissing never ceasing.

        Josh pulled out of their kiss to quickly remove Hazel's black blouse. Instead of being surprised by Hazel's lack of wearing a bra, he smirked at her as he tossed the blouse onto the floor. Hazel began to blush again as Josh stared at her breasts. She tried to say something about his staring but all that came out of her parted lips was a loud moan because Josh had leaned down and had started licking, and sucking, one of her nipples (the left one, to be exact). She wasn't entirely sure what to think of it but she knew that it felt weird, a really  _good_  kind of weird. He massaged and flicked her right nipple before he began to just massage and squeeze her right breast. Hazel blushed more and she bit her bottom lip, letting another loud moan slip out of her mouth every other second that passed. Josh didn't spend too much time on her breasts, just spending about two minutes with each of them before he decided to move onward (or downward).

        Before he moved further down her body, Josh pulled away from her to remove his own shirt. He, then, began to remove Hazel's pants and panties almost hurriedly. He was very eager to continue this. So was Hazel. Once she was completely naked and blushing deeply, Josh wasted no time in spreading her legs apart and soon, his mouth was on her dripping wet pussy. Hazel blushed further, if that was possible, and she covered her mouth as he licked and sucked on her nether region. It felt so wonderful to her and she was struggling to keep herself from moaning too loudly. She could feel her juices flowing and she could feel Josh lapping those juices up as she felt his tongue lick around and against her wet entrance. She was surprised that he was so skilled at this but she reminded herself that he, sadly, had done this with someone else before. Even though she started thinking about that again, she wasn't turned off. That one girl had just been practice for what was now going to be real between herself (Hazel) and Josh. No amount of slight or major jealousy would ruin this for Hazel because she was here with Josh right now and no one else was. Josh was hers and she was his.

        Hazel removed her hand from her mouth at last, allowing herself to release sinful loud moans as she allowed herself to fully enjoy the pleasure he was giving her right now. She gasped loudly as he suddenly shoved his tongue within her and her moans became even louder as she felt him start licking the inside of her pussy. "Josh!" she moaned out, gripping the bed-sheets tightly. It just felt so good to her, too good. She could barely handle the pleasure she was receiving and she felt herself slowly coming to the edge of orgasm. Josh's tongue eventually found its way to her clit after he removed his tongue from her entrance and he lapped, and sucked, her clit gently, sometimes harshly. As that continued, Hazel felt herself get much closer to the edge of orgasm but before she reached it, Josh stopped and he moved away from her nether regions, once again laying over her body as he stared down at her with a smirk. She pouted at him as she panted. "Josh, that so wasn't cool," she whined as she released her grip on the sheets.

        Josh chuckled. "I want us to release together."

        "Mmm," Hazel hummed as she began to smile at him. "That's sweet of you. But, we're not getting to the main event until you allow me to get even with you." She expected him to disagree with her and get on with the main event anyway but there he was, standing up to get rid of his pants and boxers before he sat down on the bed and gestured for her to come over, to have at it. Hazel blushed at the fact that the both of them were now naked. She blushed more when she sat up, moved closer to Josh, and leaned over to start sucking, and licking, his dick without a second thought. He was extremely hard, hard to the fullest, and he tasted wonderful to her. She spent quite some time sucking and licking him, listening to him groan and moan quiet-ishly. It sounded so sexy to her. She continued with that, up until he was close to releasing. She was planning on pulling away like she said she'd do but Josh beat her to that, him having pushed her away gently instead. He made her lay back down on the bed, getting back on top of her as he kissed her fiercely on the lips.

        Seconds later, he broke the kiss and he stared down at her lovingly. "Sorry," he apologized. "I just really want to get this started." He was getting impatient because of his excitement and eagerness. He wanted to become one with her already.

        Hazel giggled at him and she nodded. "I understand."

        Josh kissed her neck as he wrapped her legs around his hips and he positioned himself at her pussy's entrance with little difficulty. His dick probed at her entrance a bit, sending waves of pleasure through Hazel. "Ready, baby?" he asked her, wanting to be entirely sure that she wanted this. They could still turn back before it was too late, if she really didn't want this with him. She hummed and nodded in answer, waiting for him to proceed. She knew it was going to hurt but she wasn't scared. She winced, however, when he slowly pushed into her. It actually hurt quite a bit for her but she didn't care, she wanted him inside her fully. Josh stared at her and she locked eyes with him, nodding again as she wrapped her arms around his neck. In a single thrust, he was completely inside of her and he was laying against her, not fully though. Hazel's grip around him tightened as tears began to threaten to spill down her cheeks because of the pain she was feeling. Josh rubbed her right cheek. "Are you okay?" he asked, leaning his head down to kiss her forehead.

        "...Just give me a moment," she told him with a pain-filled tone. He nodded and buried his head on her right shoulder. The two lovebirds laid there for a few minutes, holding each other tightly as Hazel slowly got use to the pain. Once she did, she squirmed a bit in Josh's arms and she thrusted her hips upwards to signal that she wanted him to begin, using actions instead of words. Immediately, Josh began to thrust in and out of her at a slow, even speed. Slowly but surely, Hazel began to moan softly from the movements as she began to feel amazing because of this. In no time, Josh's thrusting increased and soon enough, both of them were moaning loudly, clinging to each other tightly as they slowly grew close to their release, giving each other butterfly kisses as their sexual intercourse continued.

        Josh groaned as he began to pull out of Hazel almost completely. "You're really tight, you know," he commented before he slammed back into her, grunting loudly as he did so. It made sense that he'd make conversation during sex.

        Hazel blushed deeply as she moaned loudly. "D-Don't talk like that." She felt a bit embarrassed but that went away as Josh repeatedly slammed into her.

        Josh smiled as he continued to pleasure himself and Hazel. "Only just this once," he told her before he leaned down again, closing his eyes as he kissed her roughly. She kissed him back with equal roughness. More time passed by. Minutes felt like hours to them as they became sweaty in each others arms, both panting as their pelvic areas made noise each time they connected. The even pacing became faster and Hazel soon found herself in Josh's lap after he placed his arms around her entirely and lifted her up as he moved into a sitting position on the bed. As he thrusted up into her, she thrusted downwards to meet him. As they let out their sexual needs in this new position, they stared into each other's eyes, both of them blushing this time as they did. They remained like this, keeping pace with each other for several minutes before Josh broke eye contact, laying his head on her right shoulder as he started thrusting up into her harder and more rapidly. He was reaching his limit at last and so was Hazel. After many hard and rapid thrusts, Josh groaned Hazel's name and released inside of her as she screamed his name and released her juices all over him. As their orgasms died down slowly, they remained in the same position as they both sweated and panted.

        "I love you, Josh," Hazel panted as she kissed the corner of his mouth.

        Josh smiled tiredly at her as he panted. "I love you, too, Hazel." He kissed her upon the lips but sweetly this time around. This had been the most amazing experience that Hazel had ever had and she hoped it wouldn't be the last time she felt this way about anything. A few minutes passing by, Hazel removed herself from Josh's lap and she winced slightly as his dick exited her pussy. Afterwards, she laid down and Josh laid beside her, wrapping his arm over her abdomen as he laid on his stomach (Hazel was laying on her back, obviously). Josh had enjoyed the experience as much as Hazel had and he was happy to know that she had given her virginity to him, little blood stains on his bed as proof of that fact. He felt like the luckiest man alive to have such a beautiful girlfriend laying beside him. However, that happiness was too good to be true because in mere minutes, Josh began to think back to six months ago...

        Hazel could've gone missing like his sisters but she had been lucky enough to be found before she froze to death. Josh was extremely happy about that but he was additionally pissed off that he could've lost her that day because of some damn prank that was pulled on Hannah. She had injured herself and she had a large bruise on her head. Josh could've lost everything that day, everyone that was important to him were almost entirely lost. Josh glared at the ceiling. He wanted revenge for what had happened. He wanted to get back at those who had been a part of that prank that lead to Beth and Hannah's disappearance, and Hazel's almost disappearance (and almost death). He wanted all of them to go through the same horrors that his sisters and Hazel had went through that night. Maybe even worse that that because they deserve it. He needed to get his revenge and he didn't want to do it alone. Perhaps Hazel would team up with him...

        "Josh?" Hazel questioned. She shifted around on the bed, placing on her side instead of her back as she turned to face him. She looked worried about him. "Are you okay? What are you thinking about? Was it me?" She believed his glaring and newest negative mood had been because of her. She believed that she hadn't been good enough for him.

        Josh smiled as his glare vanished, his eyes on her. He liked the fact that she was getting worried. "I'm fine," he assured her. "I was just thinking about what happened to Beth and Hannah, and...what could've happened to you." His smile had faded when he spoke of his thoughts and he did not yet voice his wish for revenge with Hazel yet. He didn't want to ruin this moment, even though he had gone into a negative mood temporarily because of his thoughts.

        Hazel frowned upon hearing this information, not liking that Josh was thinking back to that night. "Oh, I see... Do you wanna talk about it?"

        "It's nothing bad," Josh told her as he sat up on the bed. He kept his eyes locked with hers and she stared at him curiously this time. "I was just... I was thinking about revenge. I think we need to get some payback for what our dear friends did that day." He just went right out and stated it. What was the point in him keeping it back? Hazel probably felt the same way or she probably was going to agree with his idea. The two of them seemed to be the only ones who actually really, really cared about Beth and Hannah, and they both seemed to be the only ones that had some hope left about the sisters being found someday...

        A surprised look formed on Hazel's face for a moment before she appeared to become deep within her thoughts afterwards. After a few more moments, Hazel finally spoke again and she wasn't voicing any sort of disagreement with what Josh had said. "...And how exactly should we do that?"

        "We prank them back," Josh stated matter of factly. What other ways were there to get payback for a prank gone wrong?

        Hazel became hesitate as she thought about it more, sitting up on the bed. "I don't know about this, Josh..." she replied. "Someone could go missing again like your sisters did and Chris wasn't even a part of it. He was as drunk as you were when it all happened. I don't think we should involve him." She may had been ignoring him for no apparent reason for a long time, apart from depression being the actual reason (mostly), but she didn't blame him at all for what had happened. She knew that she had taken some anger out on him (that being the secondary reason for her ignoring him, basically) but she hadn't been able to control her anger at the time. Right now, her anger was under control and maybe even diminished. Nah, that would be a lie. Her anger was merely just dormant right now.

        "We can use the prank to get him and Ashley together. He isn't going to get with her anytime soon and with how much he chickens out from telling her about his feelings, he'll never ask her out," Josh stated. "Sam wasn't a part of it either," he pointed out seconds later and that seemed to hit a nerve for Hazel.

        "Yeah, well, I know that, but she didn't go after Hannah despite that they were best friends," Hazel stated blankly. She didn't like that Josh had, in a tiny way, defended Sam like Hazel had defended Chris. She already felt like Sam had some sort of crush of Josh but hearing Josh defend Sam like that just pissed her off. "She might as well had been Hannah's fake best friend." She had blankness in her eyes, showing absolutely no emotion visibly and Josh didn't like it at all. She wasn't showing that she was angry with Josh's defense but she didn't realize that her lack of sharing emotions was making Josh worry about her again.

        "This is why I want to get back at them. None of them went after my sisters or you when you three were out there. Not until it was too late." Josh shook his head. "We can't just let that go. We can't pretend like nothing happened."

        Hazel stared at Josh blankly for a few moments before her blank stare became full of life once more. She smiled brightly as her hesitation, anger, and emotionlessness disappeared for the time being. "Okay. Let's prank them. We need our revenge, just like you said." She was on the same page as him now. She had another thoughtful look on her face after a few seconds. "We'll need to make a plan, we'll need to find a place for the prank to take place, we'll need to figure out the date of when the prank will take place, and we'll need to figure out lots of shit for the prank that will probably be very expensive but worth getti-what?" She stopped her rambling when she noticed that Josh was staring at her still with a large smile on his face.

        Josh didn't realize he was staring at her still, smiling like a mad man at how adorable she was as she schemed. "You seem more into this revenge idea than I am and I'm the one who thought of it first."

        Hazel blushed as she tried to come up with an excuse for why she was being like this. "Well, I, you see, shut up!"

        Josh chuckled and he shook his head slightly. "Sorry." He paused to think for a moment, finally looking away from her but only temporarily. "The date should be around when... when my sisters vanished." He wasn't sure how Hazel would react to that since she was becoming very unpredictable at a slow rate, something else that was bothering Josh.

        "That's actually a really good idea," Hazel stated with a smile. "We can send a video before the anniversary of their... Of their disappearance and say that we should all get together to hang out like old times. We can pretend that we almost completely recovered, although we're both nowhere near such a thing, and that also means I'll be talking to everyone again as I act like my old self and a bit like my new self. Now, we just gotta think of what the prank should be and then, we need to make a list of things to buy for it," she continued excitedly. "The prank should be something that is, like, completely fucked up, you know? Something you'd see in a horror film or horror game."

        "I am loving your ideas, baby. We should probably write this down," Josh suggested. "And whatever else that pops into that wild head of yours." Hazel smiled at him more and she nodded. She stood up from the bed, walking around the room as she searched for something to write with and something to write on while she remained nude. Josh maneuvered around on his bed until he was leaning against the headboard and he smiled as he crossed his arms, his eyes on Hazel as he silently checked her out while she looked around. This prank was going to be great. They were going to make their friends wish they did something for his sisters...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I'm dying from laughter! I sucked so much at writing back then! You might still think I suck but that's because I'm keeping it cringy. My soul isn't fully into writing this, but I'm gonna keep trying my best with this. You want better descriptions, check out my Supernatural fanfic because that's way better, I think, with original chapters. Probably goes back and forth with past and present tense in that too but I've always had trouble with that. I'll get better eventually with that too, like I did with descriptions. You'll love that, though, if you love horror and supernatural elements...and really hot men XD. Go read it! This story will get better over time, once I get to the scripted parts of it because then, I will have much more to work with.
> 
> What I Was Laughing At: "She sprained her head and she got a bruise on her head". What the fuck, self? XD Was I not paying attention? Did anyone else ever catch that mistake, ever?! XD No one mentioned it so probably not.
> 
> It took several years but I finally have the game! Beaten it several times, in various ways. Just have one more achievement to unlock and I'm good with that. Loving my brother's ps4. Update: I got all the achievements, bitches.


	5. Video

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hazel and Josh make a video.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Date Revamped: January 13th, 2018
> 
> Additions To This Version: Added Dialogue, Errors Fixed (Some Might Remain), Third Person Instead of First Person (Originally in Hazel's Point of View)
> 
> Warnings: Video Game Plot Is Finally Back In Action, Cursing, Sexual Content Implied, Original Dialogue, Unoriginal Dialogue, Possibility of Out-of-Character Moments

        So much time had gone by since Hazel and Josh came up with their plan for vengeance. Nearly a year has gone by since the disappearance of Beth and Hannah Washington. The anniversary of their disappearance was just around the corner, close to occurring. If she was honest with herself, Hazel was very anxious about it and super excited for it as well. Josh and Hazel have finally gotten the prank all set up at the lodge; the lodge was the best place for the prank to take place and on the day of the anniversary, too. It was going to be awesome for them, them seeing their dear friends all scared and terrified like Beth, Hannah, and Hazel had been when that horrid day occurred. They deserved it; at least, Josh and Hazel believed they all deserved to be pranked back. Hazel's older sister would likely be scared into a relationship with Chris; it was probably the best way for those two to finally get together since they still weren't, well, together. Chris didn't really deserve to be pranked but Josh and Hazel both agreed that Chris would only admit his feelings in a very dire situation.

        Additionally, Josh and Hazel were finally going to get their fucking revenge. They couldn't wait. The prank had taken a long damn time for them to plan; after they had figured out where they were going to do it and what day it was going to go down (what day the prank would actually happen), they had to figure out what to do in the prank and what to get for it. It certainly cost quite a lot of money. Quite a lot. Loads, actually. It also took a long time to set up everything when they went to the lodge to set it all up; it was difficult to set up the prank, to make sure it would work out the way they wanted it to, but they were certain that they could pull it off, most definitely. Hazel believed that they could pull that shit off. It was going to be beyond amazing. Woohoo for them.

        Josh and Hazel were currently in the main room of the lodge. Josh had a camera set up for the video they were going to be doing together. At first, only he was going to be on the screen and then, Hazel was gonna come out and be her normal self. Well, some extent of her former self with a hint of her newer self that just so happened to have an anxiety disorder now and a few other mental problems. The video was basically like an invitation to their friends to come to the lodge but also, like, just to make everyone believe that Josh and Hazel were almost one-hundred percent better. "Is it all ready?" Hazel asked.

        "Yeah. Just hit the record button," Josh stated, moving to stand in front of the camera.

        Hazel moved to stand behind it. "Pushing the record button... Now!" Hazel pressed the button to record the shit that they didn't really rehearse. They were just gonna, like, wing it. Mentally, she was praying that they wouldn't fuck this up. Well, at least they weren't live.

        "Well, hello, friends and fans," Josh started. The footage on the camera got rather blurry all of a sudden.

        "Dude, you're going out of focus and I don't know how to make it where you are, you know, in focus," Hazel commented, remaining off camera.

        Josh chuckled a bit, moving towards her and the camera. "Alright, let's do that again." He fixed it so that he was in focus this time by zooming in a bit on his face and it remained that way. He stepped back into position. He smiled brightly, his smile real and not fake because it was Hazel that the smile was directed towards. "Alright. Better?" he asked her.

        "Totally. Now, move it along, babe," Hazel said, smiling back at him and rolling her eyes a little bit.

        "Alright. Well, hello friends and fans!" Josh repeated but with more excitement in his tone. "It's beyond awesome to have you guys all back this year. Um, first off, I gotta say I am super excited to welcome all my pals back to the annual Blackwood winter getaway!" He threw his arms up and let out a little shout of excitement. Hazel did the same in response, letting out a cheer of her own. "Even Hazel's excited. Get your sexy ass out from behind the camera," Josh continued. Hazel laughed and she skipped around the camera, turning to look towards the camera while wrapping her arms around Josh. He wrapped one of his arms around her in response. "Now, say hi," he instructed as he kissed her cheek.

        She laughed a little more. She waved at the camera with both of her hands, after releasing her hold on Josh, and she was kind of being silly like. "Hi there, friends and fans. And camera that's recording this shit." She actually was still kind of her old self but the new her kind of pushed aside the old her feelings and personality traits sometimes. So, it wasn't acting entirely. She was being herself sort of, in a way. Probably. Who knows. She was still confused about everything so she was kind of sure that she was both herself and not herself.

        Josh chuckled. "Seriously?"

        "What? Cameras have feelings too, Josh," Hazel stated, smiling brightly. "You made it sad earlier, so it made you out of focus."

        Josh chuckled a bit more and he shook his head. "Right. So, um..." He started getting into a serious tone as he looked back at the camera, his attention having been on Hazel. "Let me just let you know... Let's take a moment to address the 'elephant in the room' for a second..." Or in other words, 'let's talk about the obvious truth that everyone has been either ignoring or just didn't want to talk about'. Josh continued to speak. "I know you're all probably worried about me and Hazel...and I know it's gonna be tough on all of us going back after what happened last year..."

        "Yeah... But we can get through this together, right? Josh and I... We're better now. We're okay," Hazel commented, half-smiling and speaking in a bit of a sad tone. She kind of felt bad as well for using Hannah and Beth's disappearance anniversary to their advantage to get back at their friends but she was sure that she'd get over that once everything was commencing. "Stop worrying about us; you'll get worry lines. Uh, but, yeah, we can get through this thing... Together... Hopefully." Josh and Hazel were truly not much better and their friends have the perfect right to worry about them both a lot. Josh had become a bit more mental because of his psychosis problem, whatever it was that he told Hazel about, while Hazel was also mental, but it was more on the lines of mentally unstable where something could set her off (a.k.a. trigger her). If she did go into crazy or pissed mode during the day of the prank, she was hoping that she wouldn't do anything to cause the prank to be discovered too early.

        Josh spoke once again. "...We just want you all to know... It means... It means so much to me that we're doing this and I... I know it would mean so much to Hannah and Beth that we're all still here together, you know, thinking of them." Hazel nodded in agreement, frowning a little. Damn, she missed those two a lot. Josh continued speaking when he saw that Hazel wasn't going to speak further just yet. "We really want to spend some quality time with each and every one of you, and share some moments that we'll never forget... For the sake of my sisters, you know?"

        "That sounded so perverted for some reason," Hazel commented, ruining the mood. Probably. Josh cracked a smile as he shook his head, looking at Hazel. Hazel shook her head slightly, half-smiling. "Sorry about that. I ruined the mood, didn't I? Whoops. Anyways, sadness and seriousness aside!" She clapped. "We're going to have a great time!" She got pumped up, trying to pretend as if she was entirely or almost entirely okay again.

        Josh got a bit pumped up, too, because of her. "Yeah! So, let's party like we're fucking porn stars, okay?" Hazel burst out laughing and she moved away from him, laughing her ass off as she got off camera. "And make this one a trip we will never forget, alright?" he continued, laughing a bit because of how Hazel reacted. "Yes!" Hazel looked at him to see that he had threw his arms up again and then, she watched while still laughing as he moved to stop the recording.

        "'Let's party like we're fucking porn stars'? Seriously?" Hazel laughed some more, tears forming in her eyes from laughing so hard. "When the hell did we become porn stars? What kind of parties do porn stars even have? Actually, don't even answer that because you'll probably give me the biggest perverted answer in the universe."

        Josh chuckled. "Porn stars do some crazy things."

        "No fucking duh," Hazel said, smiling. "Porn stars always do crazy sexual shit. Always. Are you saying that's what we're all going to be trying to do while the prank happens? Trying to get laid in crazy ass ways?"

        Josh laughed. "No. I was just... I was lightening the mood, okay? Don't judge me."

        "But I am sure somebody is going to try and get laid during all the shit that'll be happening," Hazel stated. "But I think the only people fucking will be us, considering we will be ruining their chances of having a good time."

        "Hey, it's not just fucking when it comes to sex for us," Josh said.

        "Well, it isn't exactly love making because it's both loving and lustful," Hazel pointed. "So, we are usually always...fucking making love. That didn't sound as cool as it did in my head. I was trying to combine the words together but that didn't really work out very well." She giggled a little bit at herself.

        Josh laughed at her while she laughed at herself. "Well, I am in the mood for fucking making love with you." They laughed a bit more with each other. "How about you?" he asked her.

        "Oh, I am always in the mood, baby," she flirted, winking at him as he pulled her into his arms. "But don't you have a video to upload?"

        "No because I have to upload it when we get back to my house. So-" Josh released his hold on her temporarily to put the camera somewhere safe and then, he walked back over to her quickly, pulling her into a hard kiss. She kissed him back immediately, kissing him as hard as he was kissing her. His hands roamed around a bit like they usually did when they did this together. He pulled away a bit after a moment. "Let's get started, beautiful." Hazel laughed again and she rolled her eyes as they started to run to his bedroom at the lodge. They had loads of fun. Loads and loads of fun. Lovely.


	6. Memento Mori

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everyone, who didn't disappear, returns to the lodge.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Date Revamped: January 13th-March 16th, 2018
> 
> Additions To This Version: Added/Changed Dialogue, Inner Thoughts of Characters Taken Out (To An Extent), Point of View Switch No Longer Around
> 
> Warnings: Scripted Territory (Unoriginal Dialogue and Actions), Original Dialogue and Actions, Cursing, Errors in Grammar or Spelling (And Anything Else), Out-of-Character Moments, Long Chapter, Third Person (Originally Was In Almost Everyone's Point of View), No Totem Encounters (Because No One Has Visions In The Game 'Cause If They Did, They Would've Freaked Out From Seeing What We Saw And Would've Immediately Left The Area, Ending The Game Probably), Past and Present Tense, Kind of Better Than It Was Originally
> 
> Extra A/N: The thing where it stops and tells us all three traits about the characters? That is still within this chapter. I want it to stay as a remainder of the main traits within the characters for the remainder of this fanfiction rewrite. It still seems like a good idea to me. Additionally, here are the ages: Josh is twenty (like I currently am), Sam, Chris, Emily, and Mike are nineteen, Ashley, Jessica, and Matt are eighteen, and Hazel is seventeen because apparently, I had thought it was a good idea to make her the youngest. Whatever. I didn't want to change that at all so here we are again. Enjoy! Sorry for the long wait but, you know, I have other fanfics to worry about more than a rewrite. Also, if this doesn't seem all that great to you, I made it as descriptive as I could possibly make it and there are times were it isn't so descriptive but it's still better than the original, promise.
> 
> KEEP IN MIND THAT THIS IS ACTUALLY AN OLD FANFIC AND JUST MERELY A SLOW REWRITE OF IT THAT MAY NOT HAVE MUCH DIFFERENCES BESIDES LENGTH AND BEING IN ONLY ONE POINT OF VIEW! IF IT SUCKS, WELL, SORRY BECAUSE I'M NOT REWRITING IT TO MAKE IT PERFECT, I'M REWRITING IT TO MAKE IT MORE DURABLE!

**Samantha "Sam" Giddings**  
**Hannah's Best Friend; Former Best Friend of Hazel  
** **Adventurous, Considerate, and Diligent**

        A short white bus with blue stripes underneath the side windows stopped in front of a large sign that read 'Blackwood Pines'. Sam, one of the multiple teens from the previous year, stepped off of the bus and as soon as she took one step away from said bus, the bus immediately left. Whilst she had been on the bus, she had been re-watching the video that Hazel and Josh made together. From what she could tell from the video of them, both of them seemed to have gotten better since the last time she had saw them. Sam was happy about that; it sure as hell had taken nearly a year but the two were finally getting back on track again. After Sam had watched the video the first time around, she sent a text to Ashley and Chris, quickly learning that the both of them had seen the video before her and additionally, she learnt that Hazel started speaking to Ashley again once she had gotten back home. Sam certainly couldn't wait to see Hazel again and she couldn't wait to rekindle the friendship they once had.

        Sam stood where she was, taking in the snowy scenery for a few moments. She was wearing a purple long-sleeved shirt, a black leather jacket wrapped with a lipstick-red thick scarf around her neck, grey boots with white trimmings, a fur hat, and a red plaid skirt along with black tights; she wasn't exactly wearing the perfect outfit for a weekend out on a snowy mountain but it wasn't like she'd be outside the entire time. Additionally, her nails were painted light blue as the base color with small white snowflakes on them. She walked towards the fence that laid ahead of her and she opened its gate, stepping through it and she closed the gate behind her before she took a few steps forward on the snowy path. Suddenly, she heard a noise coming from somewhere around her and she looked at her surroundings, trying to spot whatever or whoever that had caused the noise. "Hello?" she asked as she continued blindly looking for the culprit. "Is someone there?" She half expected for someone to randomly jump out and scare her but nothing happened and she shook her head a bit, dismissing whatever it was that she heard. Most likely, it had probably been a deer or possibly had even been a squirrel ( _A/N: It was Dean Winchester! He be hunting them Wendigo bastards in his squirrel form! XD Sorry, not sorry!)_.

        Sam began heading down the path that would eventually lead her to the cable car. It wasn't too far of a walk and she soon arrived at the gate. However, there was a note from Chris attached to the front of it that read ' _the gate's busted, climb over_ '. Sam cursed under her breath as she took the note into her hands before she tossed it aside, letting out a huff of breath. She moved to the left of the gate, stepping in front of the stone wall. She began climbing it quickly and she even risked jumping to grab onto the ledge of the top but thankfully, the climbing and risk taking went smoothly. She pulled herself up onto the wall and she dropped down to the ground on the other side of the gate, landing gracefully.

        She began walking forward again, heading towards the steps up ahead of her. As she approached them, a cute little squirrel ( _A/N: I fucking knew Dean was here!_ ) scurried out from a nearby bush. She stopped moving and she crouched down. "Awww," she commented as she watched it. "Hey, little fella," she greeted it afterwards, continuing to watch it. Dean-Squirrel ( _A/N: All squirrels are named Dean from now on because fuck it_ ) stopped moving and looked at Sam as she remained crouched. Sam smiled at the little guy, he was so cute. She pulled out some nuts for Dean-Squirrel to feast on; she clearly had brought some with her, just in case she were to come across the rare Dean-Squirrel. "You hungry?" she asked the little fellow as she held out her hand, her hand being low on the ground so Dean-Squirrel could reach. Sam smiled more as the squirrel slowly grew closer to her and she nearly released a giggle when Dean-Squirrel grabbed the nuts, semi-ate them, and took off with what remained. "Cutie," she commented as she became no longer crouched.

        Sam walked up the staircase and she eventually came across a plaque that was screwed into a pile of stones. She stared at the plaque, reading it silently as she noticed it talked about Native American Totems. She supposed that the information was pretty damn cool to know. She walked past it, heading up the remaining steps. She strolled past another fence and she finally reached the cable car station. Instead of actually approaching the cable car station, she walked over to a map of Blackwood Mountain that was located far across from where she was standing; however, the map was blocked by bold all-caps words that read ' **THE PAST IS BEYOND OUR CONTROL** ' in thick red substance and Sam found herself being a little bit surprised that someone left graffiti all the way up there but she dismissed it quickly.

        She shivered a bit as she headed over to the cable car station at last. She tried the door but found it to be locked. So, she headed over to the two benches that were placed towards her right-ish, a bright ceiling light hanging over them. Immediately, she spotted Chris' backpack on one of the benches and she approached it. "Chris, are you here?" she asked loudly as she glanced around for a moment before she looked back towards Chris' backpack. "Your bag's here. Where are you?" she mumbled quietly to herself. "You're not  _in_  the bag, are you?" she asked loudly, hoping to get a response but no such thing occurred. She noticed, after all that talking of hers, that the left side of Chris' backpack was unzipped and his buzzing phone was peeking out of it. "Hello, what do we have here..." Sam drew her hand closer and closer to the phone, opting to either snoop and see who was texting Chris or to just close the bag. She quickly decided to close the bag, not wanting to be a snoop. "Maybe I shouldn't poke around in Chris' stuff..." she muttered to herself as she zipped up the bag after pushing the phone further into it. "Chris!" she yelled, looking towards the snowy forest. Where the hell was he?

        "Sam!" someone exclaimed from behind her. Sam was startled by the sudden appearance of another's voice that she spun around quickly to face the person. Chris grinned a goofy grin at her. "Hey, you made it." Still fashioned in grey rectangular glasses and the same old haircut style per usual, he was actually wearing something very suitable for snowy weather. He was wearing a layered light-blue jacket over a green commando-style sweater, a blue collared shirt, a white undershirt with the text 'COACH' and 'loop' on it, and finally, he was wearing normal snow boots along with some watch accessories. Same old, same old really.

 **Christopher "Chris" Hartley**  
**Has A Crush on Ashley; Best Friend of Hazel and Josh  
** **Humorous, Methodical, and Protective**

        "So!" Chris exclaimed in an enthusiastic tone as he walked slightly past Sam, approaching the bench where his backpack was resting. "I found something  _kinda_  amazing." Well, it  _was_  kind of amazing, yes, but probably just to him since most dudes loved seeing a weapon of some sort and girls tended to not like any sort of weapon like 'those dudes' did. Chris picked up his backpack, throwing one strap over his right shoulder. When questioned, he shook his head as he began to step off the porch of the cable car station. "I'm not gonna tell you. You have to see it for yourself. Come on, it's this way." He began to circle around the corner, heading towards the side of the station. When questioned again, he answered once more. "Right around here. Gonna blow your mind," he stated, making a gesture with his hands to emphasis his words. He headed past a wanted poster that was pinned to the side of the station, which Sam glanced at for a mere second as she followed behind him, and he stepped forward to the shooting range that was located at the back. He turned to face Sam again. "Ta-Dah! Pretty rad, right?" Chris asked Sam as he gestured towards the shooting range, striking a pose.

        "Yeaaaah," Sam replied sarcastically, sounding out the syllables of the word for a longer period of time than she should had. She wasn't really all that impressed with seeing a shooting range. In fact, she felt more creeped out by the fact than anything. She never noticed the shooting range before in her previous visits there. It must've been created sometime while they were gone, but that didn't make sense because Josh had told everyone that no one had been there, apart from himself and Hazel because of the video, since last year. Really creepy...

        "Come on!" Chris gestured towards the hanging sandbags and the positioned soda cans. Whoever had set this up, they had did a fine job with doing it. This was the perfect setup in Chris' eyes. He loved this a lot, even though he wasn't a big,  _big_  fan of guns. "Look at these beauties," he continued, wanting Sam to appreciate the awesomeness of all this. This was something new, something fun that they could do together before they headed up the mountain on the cable car.

        Sam looked away from the shooting range, putting her eyes on Chris. "Uh,  _''beauties'_ is not the word that comes to mind." She didn't really care about the damn thing. It was just creepy that it was there now, when it hadn't been there before. Hell, it didn't even look like it had been used, even though it had been set up to be used. That made it weirder. "Why is this even here?" she questioned, like Chris would be able to answer that.

        "What do you mean?" Chris asked her as he turned away from her. He looked down at the weapon that was laying on the post. A rifle. Who leaves a loaded weapon out in the open, out where someone could come and just take it? Someone could've easily came over, grabbed the weapon, and they could've used it to kill someone. Whoever left it there, they hadn't been thinking very clearly. Chris dismissed that, though, as he picked up the gun.

        "What the hell is a shooting range doing at the base of a ski lodge?" Sam wondered aloud to Chris. Why would someone make a shooting range here, not within the lodge or somewhere else entirely? Why have a shooting range on a mountain? Couldn't the person just practice shooting somewhere else or on something else, preferably not on living animals?

        "Uh, dude, have you ever met Josh's dad?" Chris questioned her, turning to face her again with the rifle in his left hand. He kept it lowered, just in case it were to suddenly go off. Sam gave Chris a look, showing that not only did she want him to go on with what he was saying but she made it clear by her expression that she had no clue what he was getting at. "He thinks he's like Grizzly Adams or something." He began to look back towards the shooting range but before he turned towards it completely, he stopped and he gestured towards the range with his free hand. "Wanna try?" he asked. Ladies first was indeed the saying.

        Sam declined without hesitation. "You go 'head, Grizzly." She wanted no part in shooting the rifle. She just wanted to hurry up and get up the mountain.

        "Alright," Chris responded as he moved into position. He readied the rifle, prepared to use it on the various objects that laid spread out across from him. "Here goes." With a much better view of what laid ahead of him, he noted that there were additionally some empty soda bottles placed atop barrels. This truly was a grand setup. To start off, he shot the sandbag that was furthest to his left, it hanging from a tree branch via some rope. Following that, he shot a can off of a snow covered barrel that was closest to him, towards his right. Next, he aimed towards his left and down towards the ground, shooting the can that was lying there. Finally, he aimed towards his right again, aiming higher up as he shot another sandbag, it hanging from the opposite tree branch than the previous one.

        Sam approached where Chris stood and she placed a hand on the post. She complimented him in a playful tone. "Wow. Nice shootin', Tex." She had to admit, she was a bit impressed by Chris' skills. She hadn't thought he'd be able to handle the weapon well, but he did pretty good. He hadn't missed a shot. If she had tried it, she probably would've missed most of them.

        "Alright, I'm bad." Chris began to do a short, goofy little dance. "I'm a badass." He was probably being a little bit cocky about being able to hit each of those things, but he didn't care because he was awesome. If only Ashley had been there to see him rock like that. She would've been so impressed with him. Probably. If she thought him having a gun was cool.

        "I'm gonna go ahead and guess it was a wild case of beginner's luck," Sam commented, her compliment no longer entirely valid anymore. Chris had only gotten lucky. That had to be why he managed to hit all of those targets. It was probably his first time shooting a weapon, so yeah, he definitely just got lucky and that was it. He'd probably miss the next one or the one after it.

        Chris disagreed with her, shaking his head while waving his right index finger side-to-side. "Nah, I don't think so, girl." To prove his point that it wasn't some beginner's luck, he shot the bottle that was sitting on a snow-covered barrel, it being the furthest from him and towards his left, it located just slightly in front of the first sandbag he shot.

        Sam nodded slightly, genuinely surprised that he managed to shoot another target. She downplayed her surprise by being unimpressed with Chris' work. Well,  _seemingly_  unimpressed with it. Chris didn't need to know that she had realized that she had been proven wrong. "Well, anybody and their brother could shoot a bottle that big, that close," she remarked. Suddenly, coming from within the woods, Dean-Squirrel made a reappearance as he wandered onto a nearby tree stump that had a few acorns on it. If Chris had been a cruel human being, he would've just shot Dean-Squirrel with no hesitation ( _A/N: Don't you shoot Dean, Chris! He dies enough in Supernatural. He dies too much, actually, in Supernatural. Lord._ ). Instead, Chris was a nice human being and he shot the sandbag towards his left, it being close to the first sandbag he had shot. "Nice shot," Sam complimented, happy that Chris didn't harm Dean-Squirrel instead.

        Chris pointed towards Sam before he pointed at the shooting range. "Your ass just got saaacked," he remarked, sounding out the syllables a bit. He truly was impressed with his skills. Sam, however, still didn't appear to be too impressed with what he did and she just groaned in response to the remark he had made. It was whatever by this point. Chris knew that he was a badass and he'd always be a badass. Sam would see it that way, too, eventually. Although, he still wished that it had been Ashley who was witnessing his awesomeness and not Sam, but that was whatever as well.

        As Chris prepared to use the rifle again, Sam looked towards the cable car station. Seconds later, she looked back at Chris. "Hey, sharp-shooter, our ride's coming." It was finally time for them to head further up the mountain, to the lodge. Chris protested, gesturing towards the shooting range as he did such but Sam wasn't having it. Chris had enough fun and now, it was time for them to move onward with their lives. "Come on, Chris. The cable car," she demanded. She could've easily left her there and he could've gone up the mountain later but she'd rather have someone with her. Having company was better than silence.

        Over them, a black crow flew by without disturbing either of them. The two began to head back the way they had came, Sam heading the way. Chris glanced towards the wanted poster this time around but he didn't say a word about it as he continued following Sam. While they walked, the two of them began to make conversation with one another, Chris starting the conversation once the two of them were standing in front of the cable car station again. "Man, it is... It's definitely weird coming back up here after a whole year." He hadn't been feeling it until now, thanks to distractions. It really was weird to be back where Beth and Hannah vanished. It kind of gave him goosebumps.

        Sam crossed her arms as she looked towards Chris, him temporarily standing in front of her as they both temporarily continued to pause their movement. "Yeah. I swear, the moment I got here, it just all came flooding back." She released a sigh as she frowned. "Must be  _really_  hard on Josh and Hazel..." she mumbled after a moment. Coming back here after what happened, that took courage. At least, the two of them were better now; they both wanted to put the past behind them.

        "I-I don't know how they keep it together..." Chris responded, looking down at his feet for a moment. "I'd... I mean, I'd be a wreck..." But then again, the lovebirds had a whole year to attempt coping the loss of the twin sisters. The two of them had been a wreck, even after they had reunited but that had been from what everyone actually saw. Then, suddenly, the two make a video and they are both just peachy keen, nothing wrong with them. Perhaps they had finally accepted what happened after all. Perhaps they really were willing to forget the past or, at least, put the past behind them.

        Sam sighed again as she began moving once more, approaching the cable car door. She tried to open it, considering that Chris had came from within it earlier (probably), but it was locked, just as it was earlier and that confused her greatly for a couple of seconds. "Hey, that's weird. The door's locked." She didn't even assume or realize that it had been Chris who had locked it back, instead assuming that either someone  _else_  locked the door or that it just magically locked itself.

        "Yeaah," Chris commented. "Josh wanted us to keep it locked, keep people out." He revealed the obvious fact of him locking the door to Sam. Reasons for why the door needed to be locked was exactly what he just told her, to basically keep out strangers. So said Josh to Chris.

        Sam stepped back from the door, turning towards Chris. "He said that? What people?" she questioned. She needed to know. Well, she didn't really need to know but she wanted to know. She was curious. She wasn't entirely sure if Chris was fucking with her or not since he was a jokester.

        "I don't know," Chris informed her. "He said they found people sleeping in the station one time." At least, that's what Josh had said and he (Chris) believed it was true because it was likely to happen. He pulled out a key that was located within his jacket pocket. Luckily, he hadn't lost it or they'd be stuck out there. Or they'd just have to find another way up, which was unlikely cause of obvious reasons.

        "Creepy," Sam stated as Chris stepped forward. She watched as he unlocked, and opened, the door. He stepped aside, gesturing for her to enter. Sam smiled a bit as she walked inside. "A real gentleman," she remarked. Chris followed her in and he closed the door behind him, most likely locking it again afterwards. He followed Sam for a few seconds and he headed towards the open door of the cable car station that had all the controls within it. Sam, she just went to lean forward against a railing. Both of them had to wait for the cable car because it was nowhere close to arriving. "Ugh, I thought the car was closer," Sam mumbled. She didn't get a response back and she didn't mind. Inside the control section of the cable car station, Chris was looking at a flyer that was on the wall and then, he looked at the security camera footage and could've sworn that he had seen someone before they had vanished off the screen when it became static-like for a moment. As he stepped outside to be beside Sam, Sam spoke up again. "I'm starting to get the appeal of killing time at the shooting range." A few seconds later, the cable car finally arrived and remained still. "Finally," Sam said as she moved away from the railing. She looked towards Chris. "You coming?" she asked as she stepped onto the cable car.

        "Well, I was just gonna stay here and catch some zzzz's buuut okay," Chris replied in a joking tone. He stepped onto the cable car and he placed himself to Sam's right, her having already sat down inside it. "Just like going to the prom," he joked further, though his tone sounded bland. Seconds after he had sat down, the door closed and the cable car began to move back the way it had came.

        "Here we go," Sam commented, smiling as she gripped the seat gently. She was half excited about going back to the lodge and she was half, well, not so excited about going back. She was glad that she'd be seeing all her friends again and she was happy that they would be back as a group again for another little winter getaway that hopefully wouldn't end as badly as the last. She really hoped that this wouldn't end badly like the last one and she really hoped that she could get last year out of her head while she was there. Perhaps it wasn't a bright idea to come back to this location after what happened. It was going to be difficult to keep last year off her mind.

        "Right," Chris agreed. "Adventure begins!" He was probably more excited about this than Sam was and it was for different reasons. Or just different reason. Sure, he was happy to see everyone and all that but Ashley was all he cared about. 'Least, he cared about seeing her the most. He continued on with having a crush on her and he still hadn't done shit about that. Maybe this time, he could change that. Although, he'd need to get some confidence first. A lot of confidence, actually.

        Sam let out a soft sigh. "I hope this was the right thing to do."

        Chris looked over at her. "What?" His slight movement caused his backpack, which laid at his feet, to fall over from its sitting position.

        Sam shrugged slightly as she looked over at him. "You know, getting everyone together on the anniversary," she explained slightly. "I mean, Josh and Hazel both seemed pretty pumped about us all doing something, didn't they?" She wasn't certain if they had been entirely genuine with their happiness about coming back. She felt that they were hiding their sorrow because surely, they didn't fully accept what had happened. She'd have to talk to them both at some point during the stay. Maybe they'd admit it to her. At one point, the three of them had been close. Their bond wasn't as strong as the one the lovebirds had with the twins but the bond was decent when it had been there. Maybe that bond was still there, somewhat. Maybe it wasn't fully broken.

        "Yeah, no, they definitely did," Chris agreed with her. "I haven't seen them so excited about something in...forever," he added on seconds later. Last time he had seen them so excited was when they first met each other and the second time was a year ago, just two days before the winter getaway that lead to tragedy. "I'm glad that Hazel is talking more," he continued after a few seconds had gone by. He was indeed happy that she was beginning to speak to others again. He hoped that things would continue to look up for both Hazel and Josh. They deserved better than the shit that they were going through.

        "Yeah," Sam agreed. "Ashley was so happy to hear her voice again. I'm glad that she's saying more than just a word to anyone." She frowned a bit a second later, a thought crossing her mind. "But, uh, I don't think Hazel likes me all that much anymore..." That was putting it mildly, at best. From what she had witnessed, Hazel currently greatly disliked her. She knew this because she caught Hazel glaring at her a couple times while she was over at Josh's place. That and Sam is the only one that Hazel doesn't really talk to still. Because of these things, Sam was almost certain that Hazel disliked her a lot.

        Chris stared at her, confused by her words. "What makes you think that?"

        "Well," Sam began. "I go over to Josh's a lot, with or without you. You know that much, right?" Chris nods, waiting for her to continue. "Well, whenever I'm over there, she doesn't say anything to me. She talks to me whenever you're with me but when I go there by myself, she doesn't say a word. So, I mainly just talk to Josh and I ended up catching her glaring at me a few times. I really think that she doesn't like me very much anymore."

        "Sam, I think you're reading too much into this," Chris commented. "She was probably being like that because you were talking to her boyfriend. Girls get jealous when another girl talks to their man. You should know this from being a witness of...what happened last year." For example, Hannah wanted to be with Mike and Mike was with Emily. Emily was aware of Hannah trying to get with Mike so Emily and Jess made the horrible prank occur, which caused last year to be the worst year ever for everyone, especially Hazel and Josh.

        "Damn it. No wonder she probably hates me," Sam muttered. She hadn't thought about Hazel possibly being jealous; she didn't know or think that Hazel would ever get jealous of just Sam speaking with Josh. That never had happened before, not to her knowledge anyways.

        "I doubt she hates you," Chris told her. "You're her best friend and-"

        "I  _was_  her best friend," Sam corrected him. "Now, I'm not so sure about that." Times (things) were different now.

        Chris shifted slightly in the seat, looking out of the cable car to see that they were halfway up the mountain. He looked back over at Sam. "Well, maybe this trip will help you two become close again." Perhaps friendships would be rekindled during their stay. Perhaps everything from last year could be temporarily forgotten. Maybe things would turn out okay this time around. It was going okay so far, so maybe things really would be fine this year.

        Sam sighed. "I hope so. Do you think it was a good idea for all of us to gather at the lodge?" This had been the place where Beth and Hannah went missing. Was it really wise to return? What if old memories resurfaced? What if the others reacted badly to being back? What if this wasn't gonna turn out as great as they all had thought it would be? Maybe they should've just stayed home this year. Or maybe they should've suggested for the getaway to be somewhere else. When Chris nodded, answering Sam's question positively, Sam nodded shortly. "I hope everyone else feels the same way," she stated. It was possible that someone, or multiple someones, wouldn't enjoy being back like any of the others.

        "You know what? Let's just..." Chris made a gesture with his left arm. "Let's just stop talking about what happened and enjoy the trip." They were here to have some fun, not to worry about the past. Sam sighed and quietly agreed with Chris' words. "You know how Josh and I met?" he asked her. Sam looked at him and she shook her head slightly. Chris grew physically excited. "Okay. Third grade. Josh sat in the back of the room. I sat in the front. We didn't even know each other existed, but the kid sitting next to Josh started snapping the training bra on the girl in front of him, so the teacher made him move to the front where I was sitting." He looked over at Sam during his little story telling and he could tell that she didn't get what he was saying. "So, I got moved to the back," he pointed out. Sam still didn't seem to get it. "And next to Josh. That's how we met. And became friends to this day. If it weren't for the fact that Jeanie Simmonds hit puberty like three years early and on that day had decided to wear a low cut shirt that showed off her training bra, I mean, who knows? You could be riding in this cable car alone right now or talking to some other person entirely. Boom. Butterfly effect." Sam nodded slightly as the cable car grew closer to its destination...

 **Jessica "Jess" Riley**  
**Mike's New and Current Girlfriend; Emily's Former Best Friend**  
**Confident, Irreverent, and Trusting**

        Jessica was sitting upon one of the benches outside the upper cable car station, looking at a letter from Mike that she had gotten at some point in time. She was looking quite fabulous in her outfit; she was wearing a stone-blue casual parka jacket with a purple top over a plain ivory-white undershirt underneath it, jeans and snow boots, dark pink nail polish, and as an accessory, she was wearing a simple band on her finger. Her hair was styled in two Dutch braids, both with magenta hair ties. She looked great and she looked excited about the trip. Or, perhaps she was excited about something else. She heard the arrival of the cable car. "Boy, oh boy, oh boy. New people, time to meet and greet." She stood up from the bench with her letter in hand and she approached the door of the cable car station. She jumped out of startlement when something hit the door. "Ahh!" She huffed when she saw Chris and Sam through the glass window of the door. "What the hell?!" She wasn't pleased with her glow of excitement being shattered like that.

        "Jess! Hey!" Chris greeted her loudly as Sam greeted her loudly at the same time, but with "Jessica! Over here!"

        Jess stood in front of the door and she stared at them through the glass window. "Uh, are you guys having a  _really_  weird stroke?"

        "We're stuck in this stupid thing," Chris informed her. For whatever reason, the door was locked and the only person who could unlock it was Jess. After hearing Sam beg for her to let them out, Jess let out a breath as she hit the green button to the left of the door, a noise occurring afterwards so that Chris and Sam knew that Jess had followed through with letting them out. Jess walked away from the door, stepping into the snow as Chris and Sam opened said door, the two of them following behind her. She turned to face them as Chris spoke more. "Oh. My. God. I thought we were goners. Another ten minutes in there and I would've chewed off my own leg." Although Jess could tell that Chris was just trying to be funny, she didn't find his words to be very amusing. Honestly, she didn't really find him all that funny, anyways. What she found humorous was far different than what Chris found humorous and sarcasm just wasn't all that funny to her, unless she was the one being sarcastic.

        "Aw, sick, Chris," Sam commented, shaking her head as she stared at him, coming to a stop beside him.

        "Look, I got a lot of meat on my bones," Chris stated, looking at Sam in return. He gestured to his lower body parts. "This is all muscle down here." Sam agreed with him, sarcastically. Jess just watched the two of them, still not amused. She really didn't want to stand around and listen to them have a conversation that didn't really include her. Hell, she didn't even want to talk to them right now. She had hoped that it had been Mike who had came up but nope, it was these two. She'd much rather talk with Mike. The next thing she knew, Chris was snatching the letter from her hand. "Well, well, well. What do we have here?" Chris wondered as he looked at the letter.

        "Chris!" Jess exclaimed as she moved to attempt getting her letter back. Chris held it just barely out of her reach. She stomped her foot as she glared him. "Give it back, you tool!" she yelled. That was so rude for him to do, snatching something from her hand that didn't belong to him. He needed to stay out of her business.

        Chris held up one finger, signalling for Jess to hold on a moment. Jess practically growled in anger at the gesture. Chris took a closer look at the letter that he had taken from Jess. "My goodness. Seems that someone has a lil' crush on our good friend and dear class president Michael Munroe. And what kind of sizzling erotica might our Jessica be capable of imagining, I wonder."

        He was beginning to get on Jessica's nerves. However, instead of snatching the letter back from Chris when he moved it to where she could grab it, she decided to just explain everything. There wasn't really much to explain, actually. "Mike and Em split. We're together." She placed her right hand against her hip as she stared at Chris, feeling slightly weird about telling him and Sam this. Well, they would've found out eventually, anyways.

        "Whoa, drama," Chris remarked, staring at Jess again as he appeared to be slightly taken aback by the sudden news. Beside him, Sam was staring at Jess as well, but she didn't seem to be all that surprised by the information they just received; she had kind of figured that it would happen.

        "Not really," Jess stated. "Pretty clear cut, actually. Em's out, I'm in." She didn't bother explaining exactly how it had happened but that didn't seem to matter. Sam hummed, nodding slightly as she had nothing to say to that. Chris waved the letter in his hand and Jess finally snatched it back from him, walking away from his person to avoid anything else from happening. Additionally, she gave him a dirty look (a glare, basically).

        "Alright, alright," Chris said as he began to move away from Jess, turning his back towards her. "Let's just get up to the lodge already. Getting tired of all this nature and junk." Sam moved to follow him.

        "Uh, you guys go ahead," Jess told them, making a move towards the bench she had originally been sitting on. "I'm just gonna wait here for a bit, see who else is coming." So, pretty much she was just gonna wait until Mike showed up.

        Chris knew exactly why Jess was waiting. "You mean Mike?" he teased.

        "What?" Jess questioned before she tried to downplay things. "Uh, I mean, you know. Whoever." She didn't want to seem too eager to see Mike. She wasn't too eager, was she...?

 **Emily "Em" Davis**  
**Mike's Ex Girlfriend and Matt's Current Girlfriend**  
**Intelligent, Persuasive, and Resourceful**

 **Matthew "Matt" Taylor**  
**Emily's New and Current Boyfriend, Former Best Friend of Hazel, and Crushing on Hazel**  
**Active, Ambitious, and Motivated**

        Emily and Matt walked through a gate together, one after the other. A little ways ahead of them, down the snowy path in between trees and wooden gates, was a wooden bridge. There wasn't any silence between the couple, Emily complaining about something which wasn't unusual since she often complained about something. "Seriously, couldn't they have built the lodge, like, right where the cable car ends?" she complained, shaking her head in frustration about having to walk more than she had wanted to. She was wearing a white blouse underneath a ribbed dark gray turtleneck and a black leather jacket with fur trim, along with some black jeans and snow boots with fur trim. As accessories, she was wearing a few rings and her nails were painted black.

        After closing the gate, Matt was back to carrying Emily's luggage in his hands. He didn't seem to be frustrated with Emily, but that was probably because he was growing use to her constant complaining. Although, her complaining did tend to get on his fucking nerves sometimes. "I don't think it would have been, like, as pretty, you know?" he said. He was sporting some gray track pants, a light cobalt-blue Letterman jacket over a light jean jacket, a grey turtleneck, and some shoes of sorts.

        "And where's the bell boy when you need one," Emily complained some more before she began to head down the path of snow. Bell boy? She was carrying absolutely nothing, anyways, so she had no real right to complain about needing a bell boy. Right that moment, Matt was basically a bell boy since he was carrying everything. He still loved her, though, despite her very obvious flaws. Shaking his head slightly, Matt followed behind Emily as she lead the way to the nearby bridge. "Brr... Gettin' chills..." Emily mumbled as a shiver went down her spine.

        "We're almost there-" Matt started to tell her but she interrupted him in mid-sentence.

        "No, I mean gettin' kinda creeped out," Emily informed him. It made sense for her to feel that way. Someone did go missing there. Two someones, actually. Matt agreed with her after hearing this, feeling the same way. "Gonna be weird seeing everyone up here again," she continued. It was gonna be awkward as hell, too, for some people. Additionally, drama was likely to start between her and Jess since they were former best friends. In the code of girls, a best friend does not go out with her best friend's ex and that's what Jess did in her eyes (and that is pretty much what happened but no one can control who they fall in love with).

        That was something else that Matt could agree with. "Definitely not gonna feel like a regular party." He and Emily walked alongside each other as they crossed the bridge, getting closer to the end of it. "I mean, what do you think-" Matt couldn't even finish his sentence because at that very moment, Mike jumped out of nowhere when they reached the end of the bridge. Matt was startled into dropping Emily's bags and he held up his fists, going into defensive mode while Emily jumped a bit as she screamed a bit and she soon placed a hand to her chest when she saw who it was. Mike had scared the fucking shit outta them both. "Whoa, dude!" Matt exclaimed as he placed his hands down.

        "Jesus!" Emily exclaimed, shaking her head as she looked at Mike. Mike just continued on laughing, a large smile on his face.

 **Michael "Mike" Munroe**  
**Emily's Ex Boyfriend, Jess's New and Current Boyfriend**  
**Driven, Intelligent, and Persuasive**

        Mike continued on laughing as he spoke, leaning over slightly. "You guys. You really, really should've seen your faces right there." Emily glared at him still, very furious with him right that moment because of the little jumpscare that happened. It was just another prank, a harmless one this time, but she still didn't like it. Although, that wasn't gonna stop her from any of her own future pranking. Mike placed his hands behind his head as he continued smiling, his laughter calming. He was wearing a flannel jacket underneath a dark blue padded vest, a white tank top undershirt, a pair of jeans, and a pair of shoes.

        Matt relaxed a tad bit, finally lowering his fists as he stared at Mike. Although he was annoyed about being scared, he thought that was pretty good of a little prank. "Dude, I almost clocked you just now," he stated, shaking his head slightly as he made a gesture for emphasis on his words. Mike complimented his words and gestures ( _"Nice one."_ ).

        "Michael, you're a jerk," Emily stated flatly. Pfft, ha ha, that's funny, considering the prank that she and Jess did on Hannah was  _much_ worse and more uncalled for. She was getting worked up over a prank for nothing, especially one as stupidly dumb and harmless as the one Mike just pulled, if it could even be considered a prank to begin with. At least her tits didn't go flying off from fear.

        "Come on, guys," Mike said. He spread his arms out, looking between Emily and Matt. "We're all friends here, right? No need for violence, just a little harmless fun. We're up in the woods. It's spooky. Come on, let's get into the spirit of things."

        "The spirit of things? Seriously? What's wrong with you?" Emily asked him, rolling her eyes at him. Matt glanced at her momentarily before he looked back towards Mike, remaining silent for the time being.

        Mike scoffed, but he managed to keep his smile on his face. "I'm just trying to lighten the mood, Em. Don't be like that." She was always like this, always unamused by the pranks or antics of other persons but was always amused by her  _own_  pranks or antics that were usually much worse than what other persons would do, hence the previous year. When Emily questioned him about what he meant, Mike told her but he said it in a very not-rude way. "The way you're being. You always get like this."

        The conversation got quiet for a second and only for a second. Matt glanced between Emily and Mike before he spoke up. He could've easily threatened Mike and he could've been the alpha male boyfriend that Emily wanted him to be, but he chose to be nice, to be friendly about this situation. Sure, Mike and Emily had dated in the past but that was over now and Emily was his. "Michael, I'm just gonna lay it out, otherwise this whole weekend's gonna suck ass for everyone. Um, this is super awkward and we all know it. Let's just acknowledge it now and move on. Okay?" Best not to dwell on the past.

        Emily opened her mouth to start speaking, probably to argue about what Matt said or to, at least, disagree with how Matt brought this obvious fact up, but before she could release a word from her lips, Mike started speaking in response to Matt. "I hear you, man," he said. "I get it. I don't wanna make this weird."

        "Cool," Matt replied. "So, we're good?" Mike nodded in agreement while additionally verbally agreeing with him.

        Mike and Matt looked towards Emily at the same time. She placed a hand on her right side as she glanced between the two of them. "So, what, you guys gonna make out now?" Emily questioned, her tone dull. That seriously had to have been the gayest moment she ever witnessed. These two were like females that were trying to rekindle a friendship or something. Goddamn.

        Matt looked towards Mike, whom proceeded to act as if he were a very gay male. He was waving his arms around everywhere as he shook his hips side to side for a bit. "Oh my god. Totally. We're so gonna make out." Second later, Mike returned back to his original posture and he began heading past them. "Uh, no, seriously, I'm gonna go check on the cable car back down the trail." He hoped to find his lover waiting for him there. The three of them exchanged rather quick goodbyes as Mike continued walking the way that Matt and Emily had came from.

        As Matt leaned over to pick up the bags that he had dropped, he completely missed the fact that Emily was watching Mike walk off. He additionally missed the temptation that crossed Emily's face as she watched Mike vanish from her line of sight. Emily waved her arm as she looked back towards Matt, her mind set on talking to Mike privately. "Ah, crap," she complained, needing some way to get to Mike without Matt being suspicious. Matt leaned back up, only one bag in hand as he looked at her while questioning her about what was wrong. "Hey, could you take these the rest of the way?" she asked him. "Uh, all the bags," she added on. He was already carrying the bags to begin with, yet she was acting as if she had helped him carry them up there that far.

        "Uh... Why?" Matt asked her, curious as to why she was asking him this when he was already going to do such anyways. Like, why was she asking him to do something that he was already doing? That was a bit odd, but he was sure that she had her reasons for doing it.

        "I need to go find Sam," Emily lied immediately. Matt looked at her, confused as to why she wanted to speak with Sam. Emily hadn't mentioned Sam for a long time and she most certainly hadn't spoken to Sam once since what had happened the year before (which was true, though Matt was just mentally assuming this correctly since he saw no reason for Emily to speak to Sam). "Sorry. I just... I really need to go find her. I totally forgot I needed to talk to her before we get all the way up there," Emily lied more. God, the lie was rushed and not well thought out. But she believed that Matt bought her lie anyways.

        Matt stared at her, suspicions and doubt filling his being. He could recognize a lie when he heard one. He told plenty of lies himself. He wanted so badly to believe her but he couldn't, not fully. Even so, he didn't voice his doubts of what she was saying. "This really can't wait? We're almost there," he told her. After hearing some slight begging from Emily, he decided to give in to her demands. Actually, he really wanted to go with her but he felt that she'd just get mad at him for that, so giving in was his only option to avoid conflict with her. "Alright, fine," he sighed. "If it's so important, I guess I can pack horse it the rest of the way." He leaned over to pick up the other bag before he looked back towards Emily again. "But, you owe me one," he added on. He needed something as a reward for dealing with her shit. Emily looked at him as if she were offended by that add on statement. "Well then, we're even, at least," Matt stated.

        "I'll think about it," Emily replied. She smiled when Matt told her to be careful, loving how sweet he was. "See you up there, sweetie. Thank you." She blew him a kiss before she began to head across the bridge again, heading back the way they came.

        Matt stood there for a moment, watching her before he turned around and he began heading up to the lodge by himself. He felt like he really shouldn't had let her go off on her own after what had happened last year, but he knew how Emily was; she would've started bitching about how he must've thought she couldn't handle things on her own, even when that was completely false. He had chosen to avoid another argument with his girlfriend by  _agreeing_  with his girlfriend's demands. As he headed up to the lodge, he thought about how weird it was being back there again, but he additionally thought it would be nice to see Hazel again after so long. He missed talking to her. He hoped that they could talk things out and be friends again, if not best friends. Although, he did kind of wish they could become more than just friends but Hazel had Josh while he had Emily, so he shouldn't be thinking with his dick about this. He hoped that this trip was something that they wouldn't regret...

 **Ashley "Ash" Brown**  
**Crushing on Chris and Older Sister of Hazel**  
**Academic, Forthright, and Inquisitive**

 **Hazel "Haze" Brown**  
**Younger Sister of Ashley and Long Term Girlfriend of Josh**  
**Anxious, Mentally Unstable, and Sarcastic**

        Ashley and Hazel were already up near the lodge, waiting for everyone to join them. Buying their time as they waited for the others, the sisters were standing by a telescope. Ashley was looking through it while Hazel just stood behind her, shifting on her feet slightly as she watched Ashley. Ashley was wearing some light makeup and she was attired in a striped pink and red beanie, a light bluish-grey hoodie worn over a long-sleeved red shirt, blue jean shorts, dark leggings, red-striped fingerless gloves, some type of footwear, and some accessories (a silver locket and a rectangular emerald ring). Hazel was attired in less colorful clothing, wearing a black sleeveless hoodie with a grey long-sleeved shirt underneath it and she had on some black jeans with grey shoes.

        "See anything interesting?" Hazel asked Ashley, bored out of her mind. "Anything at all?" She wasn't entirely enthusiastic about speaking to others again, but she had to admit that she was kind of happy with speaking to Ashley again. She still was allowing this prank to happen, though, regardless. Everyone deserved it after what had happened to Hannah and Beth. Revenge needed to be had.

        "Just a bunch of snow and trees," Ashley informed her, looking away from the telescope temporarily to smile at Hazel. She missed this so much. She had missed having some time with Hazel. She missed this part of Hazel. She missed everything that had to do with Hazel, actually. She was happy that things were returning to normal at last.

        Hazel gave her a look, an eyebrow raised. "Well, what the hell did ya expect to see? Flowers? Flying cows? Dean Winchester?" she quizzed Ashley, shaking her head ever so slightly. Ashley rolled her eyes at the 'Dean Winchester' comment and Hazel stuck her tongue out at Ashley. "What? It's a good show," Hazel defended. Ashley just shook her head at her. "Mmm, I think maybe it was Chris that you were looking for."

        Ashley blushed but she didn't deny it. "Shh."

        Hazel laughed at her. "Girl, you need to hurry the hell up and get with him before some other bitch does." Actually, come to think of it, this little prank of hers and Josh's would likely get Chris and Ashley to finally get together. "Hey, when I eventually marry Josh and he becomes your brother-in-law, and when you marry Chris, making him my brother-in-law, wouldn't Josh and Chris end up being brother-in-laws, too? Is that how that works or am I wrong?" Hazel asked, curious.

        Ashley smiled a bit, laughing a little as she thought about it for a second. "I don't know, maybe." She looked away from Hazel and she looked back into the telescope. She turned it towards the right and she spotted Jessica through the trees, seeing her sitting on the bench at the cable car station. "I see Jess and she's just sitting around, doing nothing," Ashley informed Hazel, just because. Hazel just hummed. Ashley turned the telescope towards the right, seeing only snow and trees until she caught sight of Emily and Mike talking. "Whoa, hello. Somebody's getting a little  _friendly_  and not in the  _friend-zone_  kind of way," she commented. She, then, said that in words that Hazel could understand. "I see Mike and Emily talking, and they are being a little bit handy dandy with their...hands."

        "I thought you said they broke up," Hazel commented, confused. "You said that Mike was with Jess and that Emily was with Matt now."  _Poor Matt_ , she thought. She never thought she'd see the day where he'd let a bitch step all over him.

        "They are, but I think Emily and Mike might need to check the expiration date on their big breakup," Ashley stated.

        Hazel hummed and she smirked without hesitation, considering that Ashley was too busy looking through the telescope to notice Hazel's true emotions about this knowledge. "Should we tell Matt?" she asked, sounding like a concerned friend but in reality, she wanted some tension to be created amongst everyone. It would make things so much more fun for her. "I mean, I know that it could just be nothing and that they're probably only just talking about friendship shit or whatever, but we should still let him know what his girlfriend is up to."

        "I don't know," Ashley responded, indifferent about the suggestion. She didn't want to get into someone else's business, even if telling Matt would be the right thing to do in this situation. She made the telescope zoom out, trying to get it back to how it originally was and she jumped away from the telescope when Matt suddenly appeared right in front of her line of sight through said telescope. She even let out a little yelp. "Oh, God!" she exclaimed. Hazel, having seen what just happened, genuinely laughed her ass off. "Oh, God!" Ashley exclaimed again, stomping her foot grumpily as she pouted. That had scared the shit outta her.

        Matt ran up the steps, laughing and smiling. He had no bags in his hand, having placed them down before heading up those steps. "Hey, whoa, sorry there. Sorry about that, Ash, I didn't mean to scare you," he apologized. Pfft, he had meant to scare her because he had let out a yelp of his own when he did it. Ashley mumbled things, trying to calm down from the sudden fright. Behind her, Hazel was still laughing. "Well, I did mean to scare you,  _sort of_ scare you, but not like for real scare you," he continued. Ashley hit his arm, still not over what just happened. "Hey, wow, man. I'm really sorry, Ash, damn," he apologized again, still smiling about it. Ashley sighed and forgave him, shaking and waving it off. Literally, she shook and waved it off.

        "Hello," Hazel cooed after her laughter had stopped. "Don't I get a greeting, too? Preferably one that doesn't scare my panties up my ass crack, please." If she was completely honest with herself, she had kind of missed Matt. She still hated him for what happened, but she had missed him.

        Matt looked away from Ashley, looking towards Hazel instead now. He continued to smile and he took a step closer to Hazel. Hazel did not make a move to step towards him too, nor did she make a move to step away from him. "Hazel. Hey." He took another step closer and he wrapped his arms around her, giving her a hug. She didn't return it, but he expected such. She did, however, pat his back a bit. "Sorry for ignoring you just now," he apologized to her as he moved away, giving her some space again.

        Hazel waved it off, literally doing such as she waved her right arm towards her side. "Oh, it's fine. It's..." She trailed off for a moment, turning her gaze off of Matt for a moment. She hated this feeling that she was getting. She was happy to see him again after so long. She was happy to be talking with him again. She truly had kind of missed him. "It's nice to see ya again, Matt," she finally stated, speaking truthfully as she looked back up at Matt. She smiled a bit, too, and it was real instead of fake. She was still mad about everything, though.

        "You look great," Matt complimented her. Hazel nodded shortly as she returned the compliment, now half-smiling. Matt looked back towards Ashley, whom had been smiling during the entire engagement between Matt and Hazel. "So, Ash, what were you looking at? Did you see anything juicy with that thing?" he wondered, still smiling because he was still in a rather good mood. Ashley's smile vanished as she hesitated to say something; she wasn't sure if she should tell him what she had seen or not. "Lemme check it out," Matt insisted, wanting something to do while they waited and chatted.

        Ashley hesitated once more, still unsure as to what she should do. She chose not to mislead him because she would've felt more guilt about that than about telling him what she saw. Actually, she wasn't even gonna tell him what she had seen; she was just gonna let him see for himself. "Ummm... Sure... Go ahead. Knock yourself out, I guess." Ashley stepped to the side, moving away from the telescope to stand closer to Hazel.

        "Alright." Matt moved to be in front of the telescope and he looked through it. Immediately, he spotted Mike and Emily hugging, the two of them still located at the same place. "Aw, son of a bitch," he muttered under his breath before his voice got louder. "Seriously, Emily? What the hell, man." His good mood deteriorated just like that. Ashley attempted to downplay it as if it were nothing (which was incorrect because it was something, definitely) while Hazel was silently half enjoying this (apparently, she felt a bit bad about this occurrence but she mostly found it pleasing). "Nothing? You think? Is it ever just nothing with Em? Ever?" Matt questioned Ashley with an angry and hurt tone, looking at her for a moment before he looked back into the telescope.

        Ashley didn't know how to answer that, she really didn't. Hazel did, though. Sort of. "Nope," Hazel began. "We all should know how Emily is. I may not have talked to her for a whole year, but I know that bitches don't tend to change, like, ever," she commented, speaking a bit rudely. Matt looked over at her, looking away from the telescope again. Although he could agree that he should've expected something like this to happen, he didn't like hearing Hazel refer to Emily as a bitch. Hazel rubbed the back of her head as an almost completely false expression of nervousness appeared on her face; she was a bit nervous about possibly getting on Matt's bad side and she quite hated that she was feeling like that. "S-Sorry. I know she's your girlfriend and all, and I didn't mean that your girlfriend is a bitch since I just like saying that when I refer to how us girls act, but uh, yeah. That's just... That's just my opinion. I'm sure she isn't really a bitch or anything..." Hazel looked anywhere but towards Matt, keeping her eyes on the trees and everything else that wasn't Matt. She tried to keep herself from laughing because she knew, for damn certain, that Emily was a bitch most of the damn time.

        "Goddamn it," Matt commented as he looked through the telescope one last time before he walked back down the steps that he had walked up. Ashley, with a frown on her face as she felt some regret for allowing him to see that, followed behind him a moment later with Hazel following close behind her. Maybe Ashley shouldn't had let him see that. Some shit would probably happen now.

        Before long, the three of them were standing outside of the lodge, unable to enter because the door was locked up tight. Forced to wait longer for the others to arrive, Hazel started thinking about things as she and the other two waited. She kind of liked talking to other persons again; it was fun and it made her almost forget about how unstable she had become with her emotions and whatnot. She had lied quite a bit during the conversation with Matt and Ashley; Emily was a bitch, in her eyes, and she had meant it in that way instead of that lie she made about speaking for all girls who did stupid shit. She had pretended to be the old her, the her that wouldn't want to talk much shit about someone around someone else because that was how shit got started, but the new her sure as hell wanted some shit to get started, so that part of her was happy that Ashley let Matt see what Emily and Mike were doing. She was hoping for either a fight between Matt and Mike or a catfight between Jess and Emily because either way, some shit would get started. She still, kind of, felt bad for what happened, though, but only just a tad bit.

        Hazel couldn't wait until Josh and herself started the prank. It was gonna be a bit of a long lasting one and it was gonna scare everyone to death. Well, maybe not to death but it was gonna scare them a lot. She hoped that someone would piss themselves over it. Additionally, she loved the idea of filming everything because that meant posting it for everyone to see. She couldn't wait until everyone was humiliated on camera for others to enjoy.

        Anyways, the three of them were stuck outside in the cold, freezing their asses off as they awaited the arrival of everyone else. For the longest time, they were silent and it was mainly due to the fact that they had nothing worth speaking of. Also, Matt was angry because of what he saw so he was unlikely to speak again unless someone spoke to him first, Ashley normally wasn't the one to start a conversation because she normally didn't really know what to say, and Hazel just didn't want to talk to anyone because she just didn't want to right that moment. Hazel was shaking her leg rather rapidly, not from impatience but from anxiety; she hadn't taken her anxiety medication so she was getting rather anxious with having to wait for the prank to start.

        Ashley looked over at Hazel when it became apparent that Hazel was never gonna stop shaking her leg. "Hazel, did you take your pills for your anxiety?" she asked, out of slight curiosity and mostly concern. Hazel shook her head whilst saying 'nope'. "Why?" Ashley wondered. Why would she chose not to take them when she really needed them to avoid having episodes of anxiety? Hazel just shrugged.

        Matt looked over at Hazel, a frown on his face. He still wasn't in the best of moods, but he chose to speak since the sisters were chatting. "...How's your relationship with Josh?" he asked her. She was surprised that he had asked her that, but she supposed that he was just trying to keep his mind off of some things. Especially recent things.

        Hazel didn't even hesitate to answer that question. "It's going pretty great, actually. We're a lot closer than we used to be. Nothing can separate us. Again." Though she was speaking truth, she was saying to make him feel bad about his own relationship that wasn't going so smoothly. Hey, just because she had felt a bit guilty earlier, it didn't mean that she was gonna be nice to him and say shit he'd like to hear. Fuck that.

        Matt just nodded and he grew silent again. Ashley attempted to insist that maybe it had been nothing and that they had looked at the wrong time, but Matt dismissed her immediately, wishing to wait quietly for the others. Once more, the three of them were silent as they waited. Hazel's leg shook faster than it had been previously. She needed some entertainment, she needed something to calm her anxiety levels that were rising. She really should've taken her pills. But then again, it probably wasn't safe for her to take them anymore in her current condition...

***Due to the Fact That I Don't Care Much for the Moment Between Jess and Mike, and Due to the Fact That I've Got Nothing Really To Add To What Had Previously Been That Scene, I Decided to Just Describe Everything That Happens Between Them Instead of Playing Out All of the Dialogue Between Them Because Just Nope, Not Doin' That Again***

        As Jess waited for Mike to arrive, she remained sitting on the bench. To her right was a book and to her left was her cell-phone that was playing some music. She picked up her phone, looking at it for a second before a snowball hit the wall to her left, barely missing her face. She jumped upon hearing the snowball hit the wall of the cable car station and she smiled when she looked to see that it was Mike whom had thrown it. Immediately, Mike started goofing off as he returned the smile, picking up more snow to make another snowball. Jessica began to play along as she stood up and placed her hands in the air. Quickly, while Mike was temporarily distracted with fixing his snowball, she grabbed one of her own and she hid it behind her back as she walked off the platform of the station.

        When Mike started speaking, Jess took off running towards cover. Mike ran for her but he got hit in the face by Jess, whom had thrown her snowball at him. Jess laughed as she hid behind a wooden table. She made another snowball and she peeked out of her hiding spot to see Mike stepping out from behind a tree that he had quickly hid behind after he had gotten hit by that first snowball. Jess stepped out of her hiding place and she threw her second snowball, hitting Mike again and she caused him to stop his attempt of tossing one of his own. However, he recovered quickly and he threw the snowball, but Jess ducked and it flew over her as she hid behind a stump.

        Mike ran to be behind the table that Jess had moved from but when Jess stood up with a snowball in hand, Mike started running towards the tree that he had been hiding behind earlier. Jess threw the snowball at him and it hit Mike dead in the back. As Mike shared some frustration about getting hit yet again, Jess moved to another location, which was behind a snow covered object. Jess continued laughing, having fun with winning this little snowball fight. A bird flew onto the second wooden table in the area and Jess stared a it, smiling a little because it was so pretty. She waited for a moment, watching the bird and Mike finally came out of his hiding place when the bird flew away. Jess hit him dead in the face with another snowball.

        Mike hid back behind the tree as Jess ran out of her hiding place, looking around for Mike since she hadn't seen where he went. She wanted to end this, considering she kicked his ass and then suddenly, he tackled her to the ground so that she was lying underneath him in the snow. After some flirting and a very deep kiss, the two vaguely spoke about getting each other naked during the trip before they headed up the mountain to get to the lodge at last. Along their way up there, Jess thought about how she looked forward to seeing Hazel again because she wanted to apologize and make things right between them. Sure, she hadn't communicated with Hazel the past year to apologize but that's because she knew it had kind of been her fault for inadvertently causing the disappearances of Hannah and Beth. She hoped that the two of them could become friends. Additionally, unbeknownst to them as they headed up to the lodge, they didn't notice a stranger arriving via the cable car. Things were certainly gonna get interesting this time...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Leave a comment if you enjoyed reading the remake of this chapter. I did my very best with it. This was supposed to be fixed up completely yesterday, but sadly nope because it got super late and I was really, really tired. I hope my Supernatural references aren't getting annoying. I just really love that show and I love my current fanfiction for it. I'm almost on my second book of that series, yay! I'm so happy! Anyways, I hope you enjoyed the reading of this chapter!
> 
> I'm super sorry if anything got confusing at some points since I'm not the best at third person (still much better than what I did when it was in first person, though). In the far future, I plan to make more fanfics for video games, like Telltale Games TWD (all seasons), Life is Strange, Legend of Zelda, etc. I'm mainly just going to make stories following shows and movies, and stuff, so... Yeah. xD I haven't changed much since I last worked on this fanfiction (the original version). How lovely. For the newbies, I'm sorry you read the original (if you read the original) and I hope this is much more interesting and stuff. I guess. I'm not good with author's notes.
> 
> Well, guess that's it. Bye, everyone!


	7. Jealousy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Self explanatory. So, jealousy happens, I guess. *shrugs*

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Date Revamped: April 14th-15th, 2018; August 2nd-10th, 2018 (Yes, I Left This Untouched For A Long Time, I'm Sorry!); October 25th-31st, 2018 (Yes, I Left It Untouched For A While, Again, and I'm Sorry, Again! I'm Sorry! Don't Eat Me, Please!); Finally Posted on Nov 1st, 2018
> 
> Additions To This Version: Point of View Has Changed, Some Moments Were Removed or Shortened Because Of Them Being Completely Unnecessary, Some Scenes Were Moved To The Next Chapter Because This Is Taking Too Damn Long For Me To Fucking Post!
> 
> Warnings: Profanity, Errors of Any Sort, Sexual Talk, Out of Character Moments Are A Major Possibility, Writing Still May Be Cringey

**Joshua "Josh" Washington**  
**Brother of Beth and Hannah, Long Term Boyfriend of Hazel, and Best Friend of Chris**  
**Complex, Thoughtful, Loving**

        Josh was standing at the foot of a path, one which lead up to the lodge. He stood there impatiently as he waited for Chris and Sam to reach him, seeing them from a distance. He wore a knit wool beanie, a pair of jeans, a pair of shoes, and a sleeveless puffer jacket, underneath it a dark brown shirt with a flat-collared blue-and-white plaid styled unbuttoned shirt over it. Additionally, he accessorized with a watch on his right wrist. He shifted on his feet, looking down at the snow for a moment before he looked back up, Chris and Sam almost to him. He wanted to get a move on, he needed to see his girl.

        When Chris and Sam walked through the gate, Sam was the first to give Josh a slightly awkward hug. Shortly afterwards, Chris and Josh had a less awkward bro hug with one another. After a very short conversation about the mountain and Chris' cellphone, the three of them headed up towards the lodge where Ashley, Hazel, and Matt were waiting. To the right of the staircase that lead up to the door of the lodge, Matt was standing there with his arms crossed and he was avoiding eye contact with everyone as the three approached them, Emily's belongings laying at rest by his feet; he was still pissed off about what he had seen earlier. Ashley and Hazel were sitting on the second lowest step of the staircase; Ashley had her arms wrapped around her legs whilst she sat in a curled up position and Hazel was sitting normally, both of her legs shaking like a motherfucker. Sam muttered a comment about Hazel looking anxious, to which Josh worriedly agreed with her before the three of them were standing right in front of the two sisters and the angry jock.

        "Hey, guys," Josh greeted in a rather friendly manner as he waved at them. "Get up here okay?" he asked seconds later, his eyes focusing mostly on his darling girlfriend. He was still worried about her since she continued to look anxious.

        Ashley smiled slightly at the question, but she felt uneased by the tension that was floating in the air because of what happened recently, the year beforehand included. "Yeah. Well, more or less. But, uh, it's so good to see you again," she told him in a soft tone, being friendly. She hadn't seen him too often since the previous year's occurrence, but she meant her words. It really was nice seeing him again, especially since he appeared to be in a much better mood than the last few times she had seen him. She glanced away from Josh and her smile became more directed towards Chris, her unintentionally not acknowledging that Sam was also there.

        Josh nodded slightly in response to Ashley's words. He continued to keep his eyes on Hazel and Hazel, in return, stared back at him with a smile on her face. She gave him a thumbs up and when Josh noticed that she wasn't shaking her legs as much as she had been, he looked away from her after smiling back. He nodded shortly towards Matt, who didn't speak a word to any of them. "'Sup with him?" he asked, kind of curious about the jock's negative mood. Was he not happy to be back there with everyone?

        Hazel opened her mouth to speak, hesitating for a moment before she actually spoke up. She still felt a little bit guilty over what happened beforehand, but still, it was just a tad bit of guilt that she'd get over soon enough. Hell, guilt or no guilt, she was gonna stick to the plans of the prank. "He's just... He's in a rather bad mood at the moment," she stated honestly, her eyes still on Josh. When he looked back towards her, she half smiled at him before she glanced over at Ashley, seeing the guilty look on her older sister's face. Quickly deciding to change the subject, she looked back at her boyfriend once more and she made a pouting face. "It's about time the lot of you got here. We've been freezing our asses off." Though, truth be told, she was literally freezing her ass off because she was sitting in some snow that she hadn't wiped from the step she was sitting upon.

        Josh stepped forward, moving closer to where Ashley and Hazel sat, and he leaned over, taking Hazel's hand into his own before he pulled her up to her feet. He smirked at her as he pulled her close. "Remind me to warm you up in my room when we're inside," he flirted suggestively in a low tone. Hazel giggled, smiling once again, and the two lovebirds shared a short, but loving, kiss in front of their friends. Well, in front of their friends that happened to be watching them closely.

        Chris faked a gag, which caused Josh and Hazel to look towards him in amusement. Sam, whom was standing by Chris, snickered a little at Chris' actions. Ashley was smiling from where she sat, her eyes still on her crush. Matt, on the other hand, continued to pay everyone no mind. "That's really gross, dude, and for your information, none of us needed to know about your little plans of getting laid," Chris commented, shaking his head at his best friend. Obviously, he had overheard Josh, despite the words having been hushed.

        Hazel laughed a bit as she continued staring at Chris. Josh rolled his eyes playfully at his best friend as he wrapped his arms somewhat tightly around his girlfriend's waist, standing to her left. "Oh, hush it, Chris. You're just jealous," Hazel teased, a smirk on her face. She eyed Chris carefully, waiting for some reaction, and she got exactly what she had been expecting; Chris denied being envious, but it showed on his face that he wasn't being entirely truthful about his words. Hazel figured that Chris wanted a relationship with Ashley that was remotely similar to the one she herself had with Josh. While she was eager to get the prank on the road, she was beginning to feel a bit guilty about involving Chris into it when he had nothing to do with what happened the previous year. However, that guilt immediately vanished when her mind started telling her that Chris wouldn't mind it since this prank would get him with Ashley, hopefully. So, she responded to Chris' denial. "Surrrre you aren't and I'm the tooth fairy," she said sarcastically. She, then, spoke seriously. "Can we get working on getting inside before we freeze to death, please?"

        "Right away, M'lady," Josh commented. He pulled her up the staircase with him as she giggled a bit from his remark. Chris followed behind them while Ashley remained where she was and while Matt, and Sam, both maneuvered to be a little ways from the staircase. Why the two of them had moved away, no one was really certain about that; assumingly, Matt moved to be away from everyone but it was unknown why Sam had moved to be at the gate again, the gate she had walked through with Chris mere minutes ago.

        Before Josh could even attempt to start getting everyone inside the lodge, Chris started up a very short conversation with him about if he was ready to move along and get the door open, to which Josh had answered yes. Shortly afterwards, Hazel made a comment about the little conversation. "Once you give Josh a chance to get us inside, yeah. He'll be ready to get a move on, then." Josh chuckled at Hazel's words, standing to her left with his back towards the door (he had removed his arms from around her when they got up the steps). Chris was standing to Hazel's right, his body facing Josh but his head turned towards Hazel and he rolled his eyes at her. "But, no," Hazel continued. "You wanna just talk right here, out in the cold instead of inside where we could be getting warm by the fireplace because this is definitely so much better than being super warm and cozy," she sarcastically remarked. "Definitely much better out here, yep." Josh chuckled again and Chris rolled his eyes at her, again.

        "There's nothing wrong with having a little conversation with my bro and his lover," Chris stated, a grin appearing on his face.

        "There certainly is something wrong with that, especially when the conversation is taking place in the freezing cold of outdoor life," Hazel replied, pouting. "If I get sick, I'm fucking blaming you, Chris, and I'll be sneezing in your general area until you get sick, too. I fucking mean it, damn it."

        "Duly noted," Chris commented, making a disgusted face at the thought. He eyed them both for a moment before he spoke up again. "So, uh, you two doin' alright? I mean, I know it must be really tough without-" He was unable to finish his sentence because both Josh and Hazel had instructed, or rather demanded, for him to stop right there with the topic. Josh was staring blankly at Chris because of the topic of the matter and Hazel was frowning, avoiding eye contact with Chris. Chris immediately felt guilty for bringing it up but he wanted to let them know that he was there for them and he wanted to make sure they really were okay. "I just meant that-" he tried to say, but his words were dismissed by the lovebirds, both of them agreeing that they'd rather not speak about it and that they'd rather try to have a good time whilst they were all there. "Okay, sorry," Chris apologized.

        "Mhm," Hazel hummed. "It's... It's fine," she mumbled out a few seconds later. "Just... If you do that again, I'll push you down the stairs and I'll make it look like a bloody accident." Whilst she stated that in a joking tone, she was completely serious about doing it. She really didn't like having her missing best friends be mentioned by anyone, other than herself and Josh. No one else had the right to talk about them, in her opinion.

        "What if I get injured when you do that?" Chris questioned her. "Our weekend would be over before it even started."

        "No,  _your_  weekend would be over. You'd be shipped back home and I'm almost certain that Ashley would go with you. I highly doubt she'd hate playing nurse for ya," Hazel stated, a smirk on her face as her mood went back towards being something remotely positive. "That could be one way of you two finally getting together."

        Chris blushed slightly and he averted his eyes from Hazel, kinda embarrassed. He immediately turned the topic away from himself (and Ashley). "Speaking of people getting together, Matt and Emily are a thing now, right?" Hazel and Josh nodded together, eyeing their mutual friend that neither of them really hated. "I mean, what's Mike think of that?" he continued in question. Surely, there was gonna be some drama going on between the new couple and Mike, plus Mike's new lover, Jess.

        "I have a feeling Mike's already got his hands full, you know what I mean?" Josh half-smiled as he made a gesture of sorts. Chris hummed, nodding his head shortly.

        Hazel rolled her eyes and she shook her head at the two of them. "You boys and your somewhat feminine ways. Here, I thought that only females gossiped about relationships but no, boys do it as well, apparently." She placed her hands on her hips, shaking her head again. "Well, since you mentioned the three of them, I suppose I should tell ya about what had happened earlier. It's the thing that made Matt such a grumpy little kitten." She referred to him as a kitten because she didn't find him all that intimidating.

        "Well, go on. Give us all the juicy details," Chris demanded lightly, staring at her with his arms spread open for emphasis (sorta). "I'm ready to hear it." Josh looked at Hazel, too.

        Hazel started explaining. "Okay, here's what happened. Ashley spotted something interesting through a telescope, Matt came by and wanted to take a look, she allowed him to, and he saw the beautiful sight of his lover, Emily, speaking with Mike privately and from what I'm aware of, I guess they were doing more than friendly things with each other. So, prepare for some drama once we all unite as one inside. Oh and it doesn't really surprise me, though, because I figured Emily was a slut since she never seemed to be able to keep her hands to herself. She also just happens to look like one. Same thing goes with Jess, though. Don't tell either of them I said that or I'll cut out your tongue, Chris."

        Chris raised his hands up, mocking surrender. "Okay, okay. I won't say a single word about it." He dropped his arms. "I'm just surprised you openly admitted your opinion about those two. You usually just keep those sort of thoughts to yourself." He didn't think too much of it, though; she was probably just frustrated with being out in the cold. He sighed seconds later. "I'm not looking forward to that drama."

        Just like that, the conversation had died. Josh turned away from Chris and Hazel, his attention on the front door. He bent over, examining the handle for a split second before he started messing with it; he was attempting to open the lock of the door but he wasn't doing a splendid job with succeeding. "Dammit... This freaking thing..."

        "It's iced?" Chris questioned. Hazel glanced over at him with a  _duh_  expression on her face. He didn't notice it, though, since his attention was on Josh. "Maybe there's another way in," he suggested.

        "There are a million ways in," Josh informed him without looking towards him. "They're just all locked." Or rather, he was just saying that they were all locked so it wouldn't potentially put a damper to the plans he and Hazel had made (aka, the prank). He didn't particularly want to cause failure with it already when it hadn't even begun.

        "Great, we're fucked," Hazel remarked. "We're gonna freeze to death."

        "You give up too easily," Chris commented as he looked around. Hazel glared at him, which he missed cause he wasn't paying attention to her. "There's gotta be, like, a window round the corner we can get, like,  _get open_  or something," he suggested. He was being a little problem solver, a hero to all that were freezing their buns off.

        "Wait a second," Josh said as he straightened back up. He glanced towards Chris, but didn't exactly look at him. "Are you saying we should break in?" he questioned.

        Hazel crossed her arms and smirked at Chris. "Oooooh, I'm liking this plan a whole lot. Maybe next week, we can rob a bank." She was being sarcastic towards the end, but she did mean it when she said that she liked the plan. She always wanted to break into someone's place; she just never had the guts to do it and also, they were breaking into Josh's place so it was fine.

        Chris gave Hazel an unamused look before he looked at Josh. "I don't think it's technically breaking in if you own the place, right?" He got locked out of his own home multiple times and had to technically break into the house. Sure, he got in trouble with his parents for doing that shit, but hey, he got inside the house, at least.

        "Hey, not if I don't report you," Josh remarked as he looked at Chris finally. His best friend in question hesitated to speak, not really knowing what to say in response to that. Hazel laughed a little at Chris and her smirk turned into a smile. Josh smiled at Chris and he gestured for him to move along. "Lead the way, Cochise," Josh instructed, speaking those words at the same time as his girlfriend. Chris didn't make a move to walk back down the steps, his eyes staring at the couple. "What?" Josh asked with Hazel, the two of them speaking together again.

        "Nothing. You two are just definitely meant for each other," Chris commented. The lovely, but secretly vengeful, couple smiled more as they looked at one another. With that having been said, he turned away from them and he walked down the stairs as the lovebirds kissed each other. As he stepped off the stairs and stood in front of Ashley again, Hazel and Josh headed down the steps while holding hands. Chris decided to start up a small conversation with Ashley. "Hey, Ash."

        Ashley immediately smiled up at him and she waved slightly. "Hi, Chris."

        Chris smiled a bit awkwardly at her in return as the lovebirds, Hazel and Josh, walked past him. "So..." he began, sounding as awkward as he felt. "How're you doing?" he asked, nothing else coming to mind. He didn't know how to start off their conversation, but he figured that it wouldn't be a long chat either way since he really needed to focus on getting everyone inside the lodge. Regardless of the fact that he needed to keep his mind on getting inside, he had wanted to speak with her a bit and so, he did.

        "Mmm," Ashley hummed as she shrugged a little. "Good, but a little cold. I think I could use some time curled up by the fire." Better yet, she could use a lot of time curled up beside Chris but she didn't want to make the first move and she didn't want to make things awkward.

        "Yeah, that does sound pretty nice," Chris replied, smiling less awkwardly at her. He was already imagining himself sitting beside her at the fireplace, his arms ready to be wrapped around her abdomen. That was a dream he wished would come true, but it wasn't likely to happen.

        Hazel and Josh stood nearby, watching as Chris spoke with Ashley for a very short period of time. Quickly growing bored of just staring at the idiots in love, Hazel glanced towards her lover and she smiled to herself as she secretly admired him. She loved him so much and he was looking very sexy in that outfit of his. Hell, he looked great in absolutely anything he wore; he could wear a damn dress and she'd still think he looked sexy as hell. "Do you think he's finally gonna admit his feelings for her without our help?" she asked Josh, after snapping out of her little dazing moment.

        "Not at all," Josh immediately stated. "You know how Chris is. He starts to say something, but then, he immediately backs out and changes the subject quickly." He moved from standing beside his girlfriend and he stood behind her instead, hugging her ( _from behind, in case you didn't realize_ ). "You know, I'm very tempted to pull you further into the woods so I can melt some snow with you."

        Hazel laughed. "Wow. That's a really funny, and weird, way of talking about having sex."

        Josh chuckled, joining in with her laughter. "I know. That's why I said it."

        "You're so fucking sex crazy," Hazel stated. In her opinion, it was almost always him asking for sexual intercourse. She didn't mind it, but it seemed like he was obsessed with fucking her. She didn't mind that either, though.

        "Oh and you're not?" he questioned, a smile on his face.

        "Hey, I never said that I wasn't," she pointed out. "I was only stating that you are such." She turned her head so that she could look him in the eye. "But, yes, I do believe that I'm addicted to having sex with you. You can't blame me for that, though, nor can I blame you for feeling the same way towards me."

        Josh continued to smile. "Well, how could I not when I've been dating a beautiful lady."

        Hazel scoffed but smiled back at him. "We've only been sexually active with one another for about six months, you nimrod, so don't be throwing out random compliments."

        "Look, I'm a man with needs and having you underneath me every night has always been one of them," Josh told her. She laughed in response. He kissed her nose. "I love you, Hazel."

        "And I love you, Josh." Hazel gave him a sweet, gentle kiss on the lips. He returned the kiss just as sweetly and gently. Despite that the two of them were almost always having sexual intercourse with each other, their relationship didn't focus on that alone. No, they still cared about one another deeply and they definitely would do anything for each other, even die for each other. They truly were in love (y _es, I'm keeping that cringey crap in this story because why the fuck not?_ ). After another moment for kissing, the lovebirds stopped and they glanced over at Chris, noticing that he was moving further away from them to chat with Matt and Sam; he was supposed to be helping them find a way inside, but nope, he wanted to chat with everyone first, even though he could easily do that once they were inside the lodge. Josh looked back towards Hazel and he watched as she shivered. "Damn, it's freezing out here. I should've worn a much better hoodie."

        Josh already had his arms around her, so there really wasn't much more he could do. Sure, he could've removed his own outer wear to make her warmer, but then, he'd freeze and as much as he loved her, he wasn't gonna sacrifice his health to make her feel only slightly warmer. If it were a life and death situation, he'd gladly give up most layers of his clothing to keep her warm. "Does this help a little, at least?" he asked, referring to himself hugging her.

        She gently wrapped her arms over his and she smiled a little to herself, pleased that he had never stopped hugging her from behind. "Yeah, it does. Thank you." Her smile faltered and she bit her lip for a second. "I'm sorry, Josh," she apologized a moment later. Josh expressed his confusion and Hazel immediately explained why she was apologizing. "I'm sorry about not taking my anxiety pills. It was really dumb of me, but I hadn't really cared about them and I didn't particularly think I'd actually need them." She frowned. "I should've known better than to assume I'd be okay without them." As of that moment, she was anxious to get inside so the prank could truly begin. If she had taken her pills, the feeling of anxiety wouldn't be so strong.

        "Hey, it's alright," Josh assured her. "I'm not mad about it this time. Actually, I think it'll actually help us out. You could fake an anxiety attack when shit hits the fan and it'll seem real because you're off your meds tonight." He kissed her cheek. "That's only if you want to, though. It's just a thought I had."

        Hazel continued to frown and she released a noise that sounded close to a whimper. "I might end up having an actual anxiety attack, though. I mean, it's possible that it could happen. I'm gonna be in the center of the prank with the others while you're gonna be the guy that's supposedly trying to kill everyone. I could legit cause myself to have an anxiety attack unintentionally." That probably wasn't really possible, but considering she was off her meds, she was really worried that she could have an anxiety attack.

        Josh frowned, not liking the sound of that possibility. "Let's not think about that actually happening." He had witnessed her having one before; she had been hyperventilating, her chest was hurting, she was shaking pretty badly, and she just seemed absolutely freaked out about everything remotely possible. He really didn't like seeing her when she was having major anxiety issues; it worried him to no end.

        "I'm sorry for making you worry about me so much," Hazel told him, half-smiling as she laid her head against him. "It must get annoying sometimes."

        Josh smiled a little. "Nah, I actually kinda like worrying about you. Besides, it proves to everyone that I really do care about your well-being." Hazel just hummed and she grew quiet, her eyes watching Chris as he continued with his quest to talk to everyone that was already there. Josh laid his head upon hers, smiling to himself. He really would protect her with his life and even die for her because that was how much he loved her ( _yes, I kept that in, too; and if I'm contradicting anything, I'm fucking sorry but shit happens and I do my damn best; I miss Dean the Squirrel ;n;)_.

        Chris was still continuing his quest to speak with everyone. He had already spoken with Matt and that conversation had been extremely dull because of Matt being in a horrid mood; it started off okay, ish, and then it turned to Matt saying something about how people turned out to be the opposite of how he thought them to be. So, there really was a high possibility of some drama going down once everyone united inside. After that, he finally had went over to Sam and that was an even shorter conversation; they talked about Ashley and Sam had tried to hint at something, but Chris wasn't sure what the hell she was doing. In the end, he finally made his way back over to Hazel and Josh. "Move your goddamn ass, Chris!" Hazel yelled at him. "For fuck sake, we've been waiting out here long enough!" Chris rolled his eyes at her, but knew that he should've just waited until they were inside to talk to everyone. He reached them and began to follow their lead as the three of them started heading along a path, one that lead to the side of the lodge. They were silent, for a short while.

        "Ashley was looking pretty hot tonight, right?" Josh asked Chris, speaking completely out of the blue. It really surprised Chris, mostly because Josh was saying that shit right in front of Hazel. The three of them stopped and faced one another, creating a slightly awkward triangle. Chris and Hazel were both staring at Josh, but Hazel was amused while Chris seemed slightly horrified with the question; Hazel was amused because she knew why Josh had asked the question and Chris was slightly horrified because while he also knew the meaning of the question, he didn't particularly like that the question was asked whilst Hazel was standing there with them. "She's like a  _sleeper hit_  kinda gal, you know? I just wanna rip that parka right off her and make some snow angels, right?"

        Chris couldn't believe that Josh was saying that shit in front of Hazel, still. He crossed his arms and acted confident. "Yeah, absolutely," he agreed. He lowered his arms immediately afterward, quickly losing the confident persona he had temporarily adapted. "But you shouldn't talk like that about Ashley, especially in front of your girlfriend who happens to be her little sister."

        Hazel scoffed and imitated him. "' _You shouldn't talk like that about Ashley, especially in front of your girlfriend'_." Josh laughed, amused by his lover. Chris glared at Hazel but she smiled at him. "Dude, who fucking cares? He doesn't actually mean it. I know he's just saying that to see how you'd react, considering you're in love with Ashley."

        "I'm not in love with her," Chris denied. In reality, he wasn't sure.

        Hazel scoffed again. "Right and I'm not a huge fan of Michael Jackson." She shook her head at Chris, still smiling. "It's whatever, Cochise. You'll be admitting the truth one of these days." Chris rolled his eyes at her.

        "When are you gonna take her to the bone zone?" Josh asked Chris with a smirk, after a moment had passed by. Chris immediately shared denial about that every occurring. "Come on, man. She practically spends her entire life with you as it is." He wasn't wrong. Hazel even agreed with him about that. Chris continued to deny the possibility, claiming that he and Ashley only saw each other as friends. Hazel face-palmed, mumbling  _wow_  under her breath. "Listen, dude. Look around you. Look at these beautiful mountains. Do you see any parents? I mean, can you imagine a more perfect, ripe scenario just dipping with erotic possibilities? You and Ashley, alone at last. You've laid all the groundwork, you've been a perfect gentleman. Now, you come in for the kill!"

        "Maybe you're right," Chris reluctantly stated, nodding a little.

        "Finally!" Hazel cheered. "You're finally taking some damn advice about what to do with your Ashley situation!" She threw her arms up in the air, fist pumping nothing. "Praise the Lord! Praise Jesus! Praise all of the Heavens! A miracle has just happened and I have witnessed it!"

        Chris and Josh chuckled at Hazel. Josh started speaking to Chris again. "You're a hunter, bro. No fear, no mercy. I mean, she won't even know what hit her." He walked past Chris as he said the last sentence, doing an odd hand movement. Chris chuckled again, making a small remark about understanding what Josh meant before he turned to make a move to follow Josh.

        "Hey! How dare you walk off without warning, Sir!" Hazel falsely complained as she smiled, her eyes on Josh. She ran after him and immediately jumped onto his back.

        "Whoa!" Josh exclaimed, chuckling shortly afterwards. "Calm down before we both wind up in the snow."

        Chris smiled as he watched the two of them. Hazel wrapped her legs around Josh and he grabbed onto them, giving her a proper piggyback ride as he continued walking. Chris followed shortly behind them, shaking his head at their antics. "You're stronger than you look, man," he commented. Josh just hummed in response as they continued walking down the snowy path. Seconds later, Chris continued speaking. "So," he began as he decided to be a bit nosy. "Have the two of you gone to the bone zone?"

        "Well, you are just a nosy son of a bitch, aren't ya?" Hazel asked, rhetorically. "I definitely wouldn't say that we've gone to the bone zone because that would mean that we went there and then left. It's more like we're permanently stuck inside the bone zone, my friend." She didn't mind speaking about it to him. She was proud to share the information.

        "So, you two have actually... You know, you went all the way with each other?" Chris asked as they finally reached the side of the lodge.

        "That's kinda what being in the bone zone means," Josh remarked with a chuckle. "We're in the zone and we don't plan on leaving it."

        Chris shook his head in regret. "I have never regretted asking anything before in my life, until this very moment. I really didn't need to know all of that." He shouldn't have been nosy. He looked at the windows of the lodge as he and Josh came to a stop, Hazel getting off of Josh's back ( _yes, I removed the conversation where Chris and Josh talk about a plan and cold lady buns because why add that when I created an original conversation that easily replaced that one?)_. Immediately, Chris started thinking about pushing something so that one of them could climb through one of the windows. He looked around for a moment, seeing if there was another way in before giving up and deciding on the only plan he could think of. He looked at a cabinet that just happened to be conveniently placed and gestured towards it before he moved to be on one side of it.

        "We got ourselves a thinker. Nice one," Josh praised as he moved to get on the opposite side of the cabinet. Together, the two of them began to move the object to be underneath the window. As they did such, Hazel cheered them on whilst doing absolutely nothing to help them out. She was just there for moral support, basically.

        "Gee, thanks so much for the help, Hazel," Chris commented sarcastically as he pushed the cabinet with his back while Josh pulled it towards himself. Hazel just laughed in response to the sarcasm. Josh and Chris stopped moving it once it was finally underneath one of the windows. Chris climbed onto the cabinet immediately and he nearly lost his balance while doing such, Josh standing behind him with his arms raised just in case Chris did fall backwards ( _I'm sure he would've gotten squashed if Chris had actually fell. I should've wrote that in, actually. Would've been hilarious. I'm too lazy to add it now. I just want to finish this chapter revamp already, even though it's probably still complete shit_ ). Chris opened the window and he flipped over as he climbed inside, landing very roughly onto the floor...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's all for this chapter, everyone. It's no longer over 7,000 words long since I had decided to cut this chapter a little bit so that it wouldn't be too fucking long, though it is still quite fucking long either way. Look, I just wanted to finally post another revamped chapter, okay? I'm sorry if it seems slightly rushed halfway through. I did my best and at some parts, I didn't know what the fuck to add and just kept in some cringey shit whilst sometimes leaving an author's note beside such things. Goddamn. What originally was a part of this chapter, you'll see it in the next one. Whenever the next revamped version is placed on here. Might be a while.
> 
> I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Leave a comment/review and ask meh any kind of questions. I shall answer them to the best of my...knowledge, I guess? :P Bye!


	8. Envy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A cat fight happens (yay) and also some boring shit happens but I shortened that cause I'm not about to write loads and loads of dialogue whilst having nothing good/decent to add on to it. I won't let you suffer through unneeded shit, okay?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Date Revamped: January 10th-11th, 2019 (a new year, peeps, and my apologies for taking so damn long; I've been ill); January 19th-21st, 2019 (I was still quite ill and I'm feeling somewhat decent now so I thought I'd just finally upload this shit)
> 
> Additions To This Version: Point of View Was Entirely Changed, Some Moments/Scenes Were Either Completely Removed or Shortened Because of Them Being Completely Unnecessary (in my opinion), Some Scenes Were Moved to the Next Chapter Because This Chapter Is Long Enough Already!
> 
> Warnings: Profanity, Errors of Any Sort, Some More Sexual Talk, Out of Character Moments Are a Major Possibility, Writing Is Still Quite Cringey (to me, at least), Ridiculous Cat Fight, Inside Author's Commentary Cause I Felt Like Putting Some More
> 
> I Did My Best! Many Apologies If It's Complete Shit! I'll Try To Do Better Next Time, Promise!

        Chris opened the window and he flipped over as he climbed inside, landing very roughly onto the floor. He groaned to himself as he just lied there on his back, slightly regretting his decision of going inside first. From outside, Josh and Hazel heard the thumping sound of his crash landing, both immediately making a move to see if their close friend was alright; Josh climbed onto the cabinet  _(why did I think it was a power box originally? Was I that bad at thinking of a proper word or_   _something? Lord, have mercy_ ) first whilst Hazel moved in closer, no longer cheering. Turning around, Josh reached down and helped his girlfriend onto the object, keeping an arm around her so she wouldn't lose her balance. Together, they glanced inside the window to find their mutual friend lying on the hard floor.

        "Chris? You alright, my dude?" Hazel questioned, sounding a little concerned about him. If he had actually been a part of the prank that happened the previous year, it was likely she would've shown less concern and more amusement  _(I feel like I've put this in a previous chapter but in different words; I'm putting it again, though, cause hey, cringey dialogue from a game needs additional cringey writing and author's commentary_ ).

        "I'm okay!" he yelled to his friends, his eyes remaining closed as he continued to just lie there. "I'm good!" He huffed out a breath. "Just... I should've paid more attention in climbing class," he mumbled seconds later, unsure if his friends heard him.

        "Climbing class?" Hazel asked, confused as hell. "What the fuck is climbing class? Are you sure we go to the same school?"

        Josh appeared to be a bit confused himself, but he quickly figured out, or assumed, what his friend had meant. "You mean  _gym_?" he questioned, his eyes narrow.

        "Yeah," Chris commented as he finally began to stand up from the floor. "You know, with the climbing up the rope." He stood up entirely, his hand on his aching back; that certainly had been a rough landing, but nothing he couldn't recover from after a few moments. Additionally, he had a feeling that his previous wording would soon give him an ear full of Hazel's remarks.

        Hazel burst into immediate laughter, after she processed that information in her head. "Seriously, Chris? Are you fucking kidding me? You had me so confused for a moment there. Climbing class? Seriously? That's just... God, that was pretty dumb of you to say. You might wanna think before you speak next time, bud, or else some more nonsense will come flying out." That was a rather amusing moment to her, but the amusement would likely last for another minute before seriousness would return.

        "Ha, ha, ha," Chris sarcastically laughed as he turned towards the window to glare at Hazel playfully. Seconds later, the light bulb above him suddenly exploded, darkening the room he was inside. He jumped from startlement as he looked towards the broken object. "Did I do that?" he asked as he blinked at the bulb with a confused expression. Immediately, Hazel smacked her hand against her forehead as more laughter escaped her lips. Chris looked back towards the window. "What's so funny?" he asked.

        Removing her hand from her forehead, Hazel stared back at Chris without noticing that Josh was staring at her. Still shaking with laughter, she smiled with genuine joy and she gestured towards the broken light fixture. "Yes, Chris," she stated sarcastically. "You used your mystical mind powers to make the light bulb explode." She shook her head slightly as she laughed a bit more. "Why would you... How? How could you even think that? What the hell made you think that you were the reason for it suddenly exploding? You didn't touch it, you didn't even breathe on it. Also, the light was already on, so like, you had zero interaction with it."

        "She's got a good point, Cochise," Josh commented with a half-smile. "Maybe the light just overheated or something."

        "Whatever..." Chris mumbled, feeling a little bit like an idiot.

        "Here, use this." Josh tossed him a lighter, which he caught with ease. Seconds later, there was light again because duh, Chris used the lighter like a smart person would in that situation ( _Isn't that bizarre? Aren't you just going oooh?_ ). Beside lover boy, Hazel was mentally wondering why she wasn't focusing on getting revenge but then she immediately dismissed her thoughts as the plan started coming back to her mind at full speed. "Whoa, Chris," Josh said, gaining the attention of Hazel and the male in question. "I just got an awesome idea."

        Hazel blinked. "Damn. Three seconds and you've already got a plan. That's a new record, beloved. So, let's hear it. What brilliance have you thought up this time?" That wasn't suspicious at all because Josh was always thinking up things; least, he was always doing such before the whole fiasco from the year before  _(I'm not gonna stop putting annoying shit like that into the story so you may leave if it's pissing you off)._

        Josh began explaining his idea that had randomly popped into his mind. "Okay, so, I'm  _pretty_  sure that I've got some deodorant in one of the bathrooms. You could use  _that_ ," he gestured towards the ceiling, motioning towards the area upstairs, "with the  _lighter_." He pointed at the lighter in Chris' hand for some emphasis, which he didn't need to do.

        "I don't..." Chris stared at Josh with confusion written in his tone and on his face. "I don't follow. How's a stick of deodorant gonna help solve our problem?" he asked.

        "Spray on," Josh remarked to the idiot. "It's a can." Immediately after he corrected Chris' assumption, his friend in question nodded as he finally started to understand the big plan. "Flamethrower," he added on, just in case Chris wasn't fully with him.

        "I'm with ya, man," Chris commented, stating that he was aware of the plan. "Flamethrower. Just like we do with the lil' army dudes."

        Josh nodded shortly. "Yup. The ones we melted. Just point the spray-can at the lighter, then  _fwoosh_." He used both of his hands for emphasis that time around. Unaware that he had removed his arm from around her cause she wasn't paying full attention, Hazel leaned to the side too much and nearly lost her balance completely but Josh reacted quickly, wrapping his arm around her again. "S-Sorry, sweetheart."

        "It's alright, love. Shit happens," Hazel commented, kissing his cheek. "I'm okay. No harm was done."

        Josh smiled at Hazel before he looked back towards Chris. "Alright. So, you got this. I'm gonna go sort something out with Hazel. It's super important. You up for hunting around in the dark a little bit by yourself?"

        Chris looked around the mostly dark room before he looked back at Josh, shrugging slightly. "Nope, not really, but I'll do it." He smirked at the lovebirds. "You two are just gonna bang against a tree, aren't you?"

        "Nope, never," Josh told him, shaking his head. "Not worth the risk of freezing to death."

        Immediately, Hazel started joking around. "He's totally lying. We're so gonna bang. If you hear the sounds of really loud moaning and screams of pleasure, you'll know exactly what's going on. Okay? Okay. Glad we had this awesome conversation." She giggled as Chris gave her a face of disgust at the unwanted, and somewhat false, information. Beside her, Josh was blushing quite a bit. Removing his arm from around her person, Hazel hopped off the cabinet and landed perfectly on her feet, stepping into the snow. She listened to Josh imitate John Wayne as he said goodbye to Chris temporarily and he, too, jumped off the cabinet, pouting a bit at his lover. "What?" Hazel asked him, smiling innocently.

        "That was just wrong," Josh told her. "You and I both know that you did it on purpose." He knew that she was well aware of him wanting to have another heated moment of passion with her.

        Hazel giggled again. "Yeah, well, you shouldn't be such a horny boi."

        "Oh, whatever," Josh pouted. "Thanks to you and your teasing, I now have the image of us banging against a tree." He crossed his arms. "I'd make that picture a reality if it weren't for the fact that it's freezing out here."

        Hazel smiled and she gave him a quick peck on the lips. "Awww, you're so cute when you pout and can't get your way. I wanna see more of this side of you."

        He smiled at her; she always loved it when he smiled. "Are you excited for this prank or what?" he asked her, changing the subject. They hadn't even started their shit yet, thanks to the minor setback of the lock being frozen.

        "Fuck yeah, I'm excited. It's gonna be fucking awesome, love. Although, I'm still pretty sure that I'm gonna really fucking hate a few parts of it," Hazel stated, frowning. Those parts that she feared, they were of Josh faking his death and of the fake communication towards one of Josh's deceased siblings, the usage of a spirit board involved in that particular part. She knew that she was gonna hate both of those parts; she didn't like the thought of the sisters being dead but it was very likely that they were gone forever and she didn't like the thought of seeing Josh pretend to die because it would feel really realistic to her. She didn't like the idea of losing Josh; she loved him very much and she didn't really know what she'd do if he weren't around.

        "Hey..." Josh placed his hands on either of her shoulders, frowning as well. He started his attempts of reassuring her. "None of it will be real, okay? Everything will be fine, I promise." He sighed as he continued frowning. "I don't want you having another anxiety attack. I hated seeing you like that and I don't want to witness a second one, but I know that you can handle this. You're strong and amazing. I couldn't have a better girlfriend." He kissed her forehead. "I love you."

        Hazel half-smiled. "Thanks, Josh. I love you, too."

        He pulled her into a tight hug, kissing her forehead again. "You're welcome, beautiful." He released his hold on her. "Let's go. I'm sure Chris will be opening that door soon and I kinda wanna fuck with him before he does." Hazel laughed at Josh's words and she nodded. Holding each other's hand, they started to walk away from the window that Chris had climbed through earlier...

* * *

 

        Chris was all alone in the dark basement, or whatever part of the lodge he was in; the place was fucking huge  _(Many apologies but my writing is gonna remain shitty, more than likely, because I still have trouble wording shit correctly)_. He was walking around without a care in the world, minding his own business; lies, he was just walking around, searching through shit since there was just so much junk down there with him but the only thing of interest was a newspaper fragment. He exited the room, walking down the long corridor and he paused to look at the family portrait on the wall. Eventually, he continued his walking and he suddenly heard a strange sound; he quickly dismissed it, though.

        He opened up a nearby door and he headed into the next room. ( _Why did it have to be a lodge? Why couldn't it have been a smaller house or something? I ain't got time to describe the layout at its best. Lord_ ) He wandered around for a little bit, searching the lodge for the bathroom that he couldn't remember the location for. It felt like he was walking around forever, getting nowhere. He found a picture of sorts on a counter so that was...something, supposedly. He headed up the many, many goddamn stairs of the fucking lodge and he, by luck, finally found the motherfucking bathroom. He walked straight to the cabinet of impending doom  _(yes, I'm writing it like I'm the one enduring all the shit, which I am so fuck off if you hate it. You can just leave, you know. I give zero shits. Damn)._

        He crouched down, opening up the cabinet, and he reached in for the can of deodorant that was just right there in front of him. He was just about to grip onto it when a fucking canine jumped out at him, scaring the shit outta him. "AHH!!!" He jumped away in fear, landing on his back as the animal just ran off without giving a single fuck. "Son of a-! What the fuck?!" he exclaimed as he got up quickly. He grabbed the deodorant and took a deep breath, trying to calm the fuck down after that jumpscare. He headed out of the bathroom, not before he looked around for any signs of more creatures.

        He headed back down the staircase and he entered the main room of the lodge. Immediately, he headed over to the front door  _(or whatever door it was)_. Ashley was outside, loudly complaining about it being cold outside. Once he was standing in front of the entrance, he worked his magic by combining the power of the lighter and the can of deodorant, melting the iced lock. However, his genius immediately vanished when he touched the handle, burning his hand a little as he opened the door. "Ah, shit!" he exclaimed as he waved his hand around. Ashley and Sam were the only ones on the other side of the door. He bowed at them. "Thank you, thank you, thank you. I'll be here all week-" His words turned into a shriek of horror when the same canine jumped past him as it ran outside. "Jeez!"

        Ashley and Sam laughed at Chris, finding the moment hilarious. "What was it?" Ashley asked him as she continued giggling. "Are you okay?" At least, she was showing some concern towards him being frightened, even though she was still laughing her ass off at the look on his face.

        Chris exaggerated. "It was, like, a bear or a tiger, or something." It was none of the above, but he was too scared to think straight about it; logic no longer existed, nor did it matter in that moment cause he nearly pissed himself. When Sam commented about the animal being a baby wolverine, he was taken aback. "Baby? A baby? Did you  _not_  see the size of that thing?" he asked in disbelief. "It was freaking huge!"

        Behind Ashley and Sam, Hazel and Josh jogged up the staircase together, holding hands; Hazel was smiling and giggling at the few words that she had overheard whilst Josh decided to make a comment about the moment that he, and Hazel, had mostly missed. "Don't worry, buddy. You're gonna be a big boy soon." Together, the four of them (Ashley, Sam, Josh, and Hazel) walked past Chris as they entered the lodge at last and Matt, eventually, followed suit. Josh did a little spin after releasing Hazel's hand. "Home sweet home," he commented.

        "Sweet isn't the word I'd use," Matt remarked, placing down the bags that he was carrying around for Emily. He seemed more like her servant than her lover and that was very unfortunate; their relationship seemed a bit unhealthy.

        "That's kinda rude, Matty," Hazel commented, looking over at him. Josh stopped looking around the lodge and he glanced over in their direction; he hated when they interacted with each other because he was aware that Matt liked her.

        Matt looked at her and started stuttering. "I-I wasn't trying to be rude. I was just saying that... Uh..."

        Hazel smiled at him slightly. "I'm sure you weren't. You're usually too damn nice, Matt. You might wanna grow a pair of balls one day. You might need them." She approached him, only to punch him in the arm gently. "Doofus." He smiled at her and she stared at him questionably. "What? Do I have something on my face?" she asked, reaching up to touch her cheek.

        Matt chuckled and shook his head. "No. It's just... It's nothing." He looked away from her, glancing around the dusty main room. Nearby, Josh was clenching his fists outta jealousy of the exchange. Envy had its mysterious ways, didn't it?

        Hazel remained oblivious of her lover's jealousy as she moved away from Matt. Skipping over to the couch, she hopped onto it and released a loud sigh of relief. "Ahhh, yes! I can finally rest my poor feet!" she exclaimed, causing a few of her friends to laugh slightly. "Now, all we need is a fire to get warm and then, I'll completely be in Heaven. Or a happy part of Hell. Whichever. Least, I'll be cozy."

        "I'll get the fire going," Josh stated as he headed over to the fireplace. The others wandered around a bit, somewhat interacting with each other but the exchanges were more awkward than anything. As he struggled to get the fire started, his lover commented about dragging him to the bedroom if he didn't get her warm soon with the fire. He quickly responded without hesitation, smirking. "I'm gonna work on this much slowly now, just so you'll keep your word." She laughed at him, shaking her head slightly. Unbeknownst to her, Matt was smiling at the sight of her giggling; he was happy that she seemed to be chipper again.

        Not long after that, Jessica and Mike entered the lodge, both of them giving everyone a cheery greeting. Only person to return such greeting was Josh, but he wasn't as cheerful about it. Mike stopped walking, standing near the fireplace and Jess went straight towards the couch that Hazel was sitting on, the latter shifting uncomfortably in her seat as the former sat down near her. Matt eyed Mike darkly as he approached him, angry about what he had seen earlier through the scope. "Come on in. Take a load off. Have whatever you want. You just take whatever you want anyways, right?" He couldn't contain his paranoia and jealousy; Emily shouldn't had been hanging around Mike.

        Defensively, Mike held up his hands. "Whoa. Easy there, cowboy."

        Matt continued to release his frustration and building rage. "Mike, you need to stay away from my girlfriend," he warned. Whilst he had a crush of Hazel, Matt was definitely loyal enough towards Emily to not flirt with the girlfriend of someone else; it seemed like Mike wasn't very loyal to his own girlfriend, considering that Matt had seen him sneaking around with Emily. Mike questioned him in confusion, not sure where the sudden aggression was coming from. "Stay away from Emily," Matt warned him a second time, only in a more pissed tone.

        "Emily?" Mike questioned. "Why would I want anything to do with her?" Matt almost scoffed at that; was Mike seriously trying to pretend that he didn't talk to her? But then again, Matt was starting to second guess what he had seen; maybe they were only just hugging and being friendly. He could've just assumed something what happening. Friends usually hug one another and they had only seemed to be talking when he had spotted them. The only thing that really bothered him about it was that Emily lied; she had claimed she needed to see Sam and Mike wasn't her. He didn't know what the fuck to think about that moment anymore. Maybe he just overreacted...

        "Right..." Matt uttered as his emotions got back in order. He kinda regretted blowing his top unnecessarily. Drama wasn't needed during their trip. "Right, forget it. I lost my head. It's been a long day, you know?" He backed away from Mike, putting a large amount of space between them.

        Mike nodded slightly. "Yeah, well, try not to lose it again, man." Matt huffed and nodded as he sat down in a chair.

        Hazel frowned, glancing to the side; she had really wanted them to fight, that kinda being the reason why she allowed Matt to see Mike and Emily doing whatever it was that they had been doing. She was so disappointed that nothing of interest had happened. "Hazel," she heard Jessica say, the female sitting to her left. Hazel just hummed in response, not caring all that much about replying verbally to her. "I'm sorry," Jessica apologized, actually sounding very sincere.

        Blinking in surprise, Hazel looked at her. "Huh?"

        Jessica half-smiled at her for a moment before she looked at her hands nervously. "I'm really sorry... About what happened a year ago, I'm sorry about that. I shouldn't have helped with that stupid prank and I should've known better. I hope that, maybe, you and I can be friends. I mean, I also hope that you'll forgive me for what I caused since I was such an idiot to think nothing would happen... We can try being friends, right? I don't blame you if you'd rather hate me for, like, forever." She continued to sound genuinely sincere and it was really taking Hazel by surprise; she always thought that Jessica was a bitch but maybe that bitchiness had been brought out by Emily when Jess and Em were once friends.

        Hazel was at a loss for words ( _Long Author's Commentary: I really liked this moment and I'm happy to slightly improve it; the idea of Jess actually being a good person that was influenced by bad friends just seemed like such a realistic thing. Yes, I still hate Emily; I don't care that she's all intelligent and the smartest of them all, but you can't excuse her bitchiness that she very often shows and give me three reasons of how her relationship with Matt is healthy because it's not such in my eyes_ ) _._  "...I... I, um, I..." It took her a good minute to properly respond. "I-It's fine, Jessica. Seriously, it's all good... The past should, well, remain in the past, you know? Um, thank you for actually apologizing instead of just dismissing it like  _some_  people we know." She mouthed Emily to Jessica and Jess place a hand to her lips, her shoulders shaking from silent laughter as she nodded in agreement. Hazel kinda wished that Jess apologized months ago, but perhaps during that time, she would've been less inclined to believe those words of hers. "I didn't expect such an apology after the lack of communication between the two of us, but maybe we all just needed some space after...what happened." She looked over to the side, avoiding any eye contact as Jess looked at her. "I think..." She gulped as she looked back at Jess. "I think we should try our damn best at being friends." Originally, she didn't want friendship or anything with most of those involved in the prank but that apology had her thinking that maybe some of them really regretted what happened...

        Jessica smiled fully at her, happy with the second chance that was given to her. "Awesome. You have no idea how happy I am that we can put that behind us. You've always been such a cool person in my eyes, Hazel. I'm glad we're gonna try and be friends." She clapped her hands together, kinda smirking at Hazel. "So, maybe later on, we can talk about all the goofy things our boyfriends do." Hazel laughed genuinely at that and she nodded; that actually sounded nice to her.

        Mike approached the couch and he smiled a little, enjoying the pleasant moment that was happening between Jess and Hazel. "Nice to see you again, Hazel," he greeted kindly. In response, Hazel greeted him just as kindly as she waved at him slightly. "If you don't mind, I'll be taking back my lover now," he joked, making Hazel laugh a bit more with Jessica. He sat down to the left of Jess and they both immediately started to cuddle. Hazel became slightly envious about the action cause she couldn't cuddle with her own boyfriend since he was too busy with the fireplace.

        Shortly after the cuddling commenced, Emily strutted into the main room with her bitchiness practically glowing for all to see. She took one single glance at the happy couple sitting beside Hazel and she immediately stopped walking, looking at the two with disgust. "Oh my God," she started. "That is so gross." She crossed her arms as she continued to stare at them, mainly looking at Jessica. "Are you trying to swallow his face whole?" she questioned. Hazel looked at her, confused; Mike and Jessica weren't even kissing, they were just holding each other like any normal couple would. What the fuck was her problem? Was she jealous of her ex getting with someone else? Matt stood up from the chair and he moved to be near Emily, feeling that something was gonna happen that none of them would like. "Seriously, can she be any more obvious?" Emily shook her head. "No one wants in on your territory, honey." ( _Oh, like you wouldn't fucking cuddle or makeout with Matt in front of everyone, you whore. Hypocrite much? I think that's the right word..._ )

        Jessica removed herself from Mike's arms as she stood up from the couch. "Excuse me, did you say something?"

        "Oh, did you not hear me? Was your sluttiness too loud?" Emily questioned her in insult.

        Hazel couldn't stand it anymore; she needed to defend Jessica. She couldn't believe that she was willing to do such, but it was whatever cause she was finally getting the entertainment she wanted. Additionally, she was still gonna go through with the prank; although, she kinda wanted to suggest to Josh that maybe they leave Jess out of the mess since she seemed like a sweetheart, when around the right persons. Normally, she would've just let whatever happen, happen but she was a new her and the new her was gonna stand up to Emily for once instead of being a neutral, silent bitch. "Why the hell are you starting up such bullshit, Emily? Everything was fine, up until you showed up."

        "Excuse me?" Emily looked at her. "Is her royal muteness finally speaking up?"

        Hazel was trying her hardest not to just punch the bitch into the floor. She merely stood up and remained beside Jessica, keeping a short distance from Emily. If it came to physical contact, she wasn't gonna hold back and she'd gladly use a weapon of sorts if she had to; she wasn't entirely sane anymore so she didn't care if a catfight resulted in someone's death. She noticed Josh standing up from his crouching position at the fireplace; perhaps he'd make a move to stop Emily if she tried anything. "I think that maybe your eyes are broken, Emily. Jess and Mike weren't sucking face, they were only cuddling. I repeat, they were holding each other like any couple would because, duh, lovers. Cuddling comes with the package, you know. And honestly, even if they had been kissing, that comes with the package of being a couple, too. So, regardless, you'd be in the wrong cause all you're doing is showing that you're jealous of their relationship, despite the fact that you're dating Matt. Or perhaps you just wanted to be a bitch cause Jess is with someone you used to fuck. Which is it, Emily? You jealous or are you just being a bitch?" Hazel crossed her arms. "I'm starting to think that it's both, which doesn't surprise me one bit after last year."

        "You stay outta this, bitch," Emily stated in anger, glaring at Hazel.

        "Don't fucking talk like that to my friend," Jessica defended Hazel. "She has nothing to do with this." She threw out her arms. " _This_  is about you and me, whore, and it sounds like somebody's so bitter that she didn't make the cut, that she just had to take out her anger on everyone present." Not entirely a good comeback, but considering she was the nicer one, she was winning by default.

        Emily looked towards Jessica, completely ignoring Hazel's existence for the time being. "Yeah, it's all a big cattle call with that dreamboat. Congrats, you're top cow."

        "Cuts real deep, calling Miss Homecoming a cow," Jessica stated. Hazel giggled, giving Jess a high-five when the latter offered her palm. Matt was silently watching, rubbing the back of his head awkwardly. Mike was remaining on the couch, quietly watching everything play out. Chris and Ashley, from where they were standing and sitting, were also silently watching; Sam also. Hazel suddenly felt arms around her and she turned to see Josh; he had moved to be near her whilst the arguing was happening. She looked back towards Emily.

        Matt attempted to defuse the situation, but that got him nowhere since Emily and Jessica told him to shut the hell up. Although, Emily went to Matt's defense when Jess told him to be quiet, after she herself had told him such in a rude manner as well. Immediately, Jess called her out on that with zero hesitation and Emily didn't really know what to say. Except... "You're such a bitch!" Wow, like she hadn't been calling Jess and Hazel bitches the whole time... What a great comeback...

        "Says the biggest bitch in this goddamn room," Hazel commented.

        Emily looked towards her again, her glare never faltering. "I don't wanna hear another fucking word outta your goddamn mouth, Mute Queen. Do us all a fucking favor and just go back to being silent."

        "Is that really the best you can say to me? Wow, you're losing your touch, Emily." Smirking, Hazel continued. "Here's the 411. You aren't the boss of me and I'm not your bitch. I can do as I please and I can say whatever the fuck I want because I have my opinions and they are far more correct than your own. So, fucking deal with it, ho, cause you're out numbered in this battle. No one gives a shit about what you think, Emily, cause we all know that you just manipulate people into doing your bidding. I mean, isn't that what you did to Jess when you were once friends? In more simple words, fuck you."

        "Yeah, no one gives a crap what you think, Emily," Jess commented, repeating something Hazel had stated, just to throw in more of her own commentary.

        Emily glanced in between the two of them. "At least I can think. 4.0 bitch. Honor roll. Suck on that when you're trying to sleep your way into a job."

        "Who needs grades when you've got all the natural advantages you can handle," Jessica remarked, showing confidence about her looks during the moment. Emily rolled her eyes. "You couldn't buy a moldy load of bread with your shanky ass."

        Emily laughed at her. "Are you serious? You think that's insulting?" She rolled her eyes again.

        "She's basically calling you an ugly ass ho, Miss 4.0. I thought you were smart," Hazel commented with a smirk. "Guess not." Emily started heading towards her, ready to throw down. Josh pulled Hazel behind him quickly as Matt held Emily back.

        "That's enough!" Josh yelled at everyone, but Hazel cause she's his girlfriend and he's bias ( _that's probably the right term_ ). "This isn't why we came up here. This isn't helping. It's not what I wanted and Hazel didn't want any of this nonsense either. Up until that shit, anyway." He was incorrect; Hazel wanted all of the drama and she had gotten it. However, she was fond of the fact that he was defending her; how cute. "If we can't get along for ten minutes, then maybe we need a little bit of a break, right?" He looked towards Mike. "Mike, why don't you check out the guest cabin? The one I told you about." Mike agreed and stood up, waiting for Jess. Once she got out another insult, Jess grabbed Mike's hand and the two of them walked off. Emily glared at Hazel before she walked over to her bags. Josh turned to face his lover and he leaned forward, whispering into her right ear. "That was kinda hot, what you did. Your insults were far better than hers, might I add." Hazel giggled at him and he kissed her cheek before grinning at her. He pulled her with him as he headed towards the fireplace. "You're gonna help me with the fireplace."

        "Boo... Work..." Hazel pouted. "I don't wanna..."

        "It's not that hard, babe," he assured her.

        "Mmmhmm. Alright, then, why haven't you gotten a fire started?" she questioned him with a smirk.

        "Touché," he remarked with a smile before he began his attempts again.

        "Where's my bag?" Emily suddenly asked Matt. Was she about to start something else? Matt didn't know what she was talking about so she elaborated with annoyance and anger. "My bag! The, the little bag with the pink pattern! The one I got on Rodeo! Matt, are you listening? Oh my God, don't you remember? Next to the Italian shoe place where I got the stilettos and knocked over the rack while you were drooling all over that girl at the counter?" Emily just wouldn't shut up with her complaints. Shit happens, move on. Hazel and Josh watched silently from the distance, the potential lovebirds (Chris and Ashley) and Sam also watching quietly from where they were. "Matt, I need my bag!" Emily exclaimed. Seconds later, she responded negatively to his response. "Do you seriously think I'd forget my bag? Do you?" To avoid added conflict, Matt said no. "You must've left it down by the cable car station. We can get very warm when we get back." With that, they were gone from the lodge as well.

        Hazel rolled her eyes at that entire exchange. Of fucking course Emily would bribe him with sex. Why wouldn't she? She manipulated people to get what she wanted. She could fucking fall in a pit and die for all Hazel cared; she seriously hated the bitch. She hoped that Emily would be the most freaked out over the prank that was gonna begin soon enough. Gosh, her emotions were just all over the place. She wanted to prank everyone but she didn't want to prank Jess anymore cause she was nice and all that; she didn't care about the potential niceness of the others and yet, she was allowing Jess to be off the hook. She wish her brain would fucking work correctly for once. She blinked out of her thoughts as she overheard Sam state that she was gonna go bathe upstairs, causing her to be the next person to exit the main room.

        "That was something else, Hazel," Ashley commented.

        "What? The comments I made earlier?" Hazel asked her, looking in her direction. She nodded. "Yeah, I'm not exactly the same as I was before a year ago so... I probably should've warned ya that you'd be hearing some bitchy remarks from me. Especially with that whore around. She pisses me off so goddamn much, I swear to Christ."

        "I think that your profanity is sexy," Josh commented.

        Hazel smiled at him. "You think a lot of things that I do is sexy."

        "That's true," Josh stated. "You're suppose to be helping me with the fireplace, you know."

        "I was? Oops." Hazel crouched down beside him. "Whatcha need me to do, beloved?"

        "Just stay right where you are and look pretty until I figure that part out," Josh stated.

        Hazel laughed. "That's such an easy job!" she cheered. Josh smiled and he started working on getting a fire going. Hazel was pretty damn sure that it would take, like, a hour or something before he managed to do so. Fireplaces, why were they so tricky sometimes?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is probably no better than the original version of these scenes I showed but fuck it. I tried. A lot of shit was moved to the next chapter because I just didn't want to deal with that mess today. Nope. I'm still fucking sick so I'm sorry that I didn't try my best to make this the best. I got tired of holding this shit off. I'll try to make the others better than how this one turned out. DX

**Author's Note:**

> Please leave a comment if you want to share your thoughts on each chapter.
> 
> Please leave a kudo if you think this is worth the read.
> 
> Please bookmark if you think this is worth a re-read.
> 
> Please subscribe if you wanna see more of my works. I currently only have something for Death Note, Supernatural, this, and The Last of Us on here.


End file.
